Quotessence
Home / Topics / Photography Quotes

Photography Quotes

Browse 3249 quotes about Photography.

Related topics

ArtIfsThinkingPeopleCamerasWorldWayLooksKnowsSubjectsMomentsPaintingPhotography By PhotographersArtistWantInspirational PhotographyMediumsIdeasLightMeanEyeKindTryingRealityUseImportantFilmMadeFirstsFeelsFormGreat PhotographyStillsDoeGivingHas BeensShouldMatterRealSeeingNeedsWellsMenPersonsProcessFactsHumansBelieveYearsInspirationalMayVisionCamera And PhotographyI CanLittlesInterestShowsDifferentSometimesMindWantedInspiring PhotographyObjectsRecordsInterestingSeemsTwoUsedPortraitsSaidWritingArt PhotographyColorQualityFeelingsLyingPainterTodayVisualsLanguageReasonCreativityDoneTakenWholeArt IsLongEndsEnoughExpressionPrintBeautifulCaptureHappensLandscape PhotographyWould BeCreativeLandscapeLensesSpacemore

Photography Quotes

“It is photography itself that creates the illusion of innocence. Its ironies of frozen narrative lend to its subjects an apparent unawareness that they will change or die. It is the future they are innocent of. Fifty years on we look at them with the godly knowledge of how they turne dout after all - who they married, the date of their death - with no thought for who will one day be holding photographs of us.”

YearsLooksDiesSubjectsOne DayPhotographyMarriedIllusionPhotographInnocentInnocenceNarrativeIronyFiftyGodlyFrozenUnawareness
Author:Ian Mcewan
Create image

“Photographers tend not to photograph what they can’t see, which is the very reason one should try to attempt it. Otherwise we’re going to go on forever just photographing more faces and more rooms and more places. Photography has to transcend description. It has to go beyond description to bring insight into the subject, or reveal the subject, not as it looks, but how does it feel?”

FeelsShouldTryingLooksDoeReasonFacesRoomsForeverSubjectsGoes OnPhotographyPhotographerPhotographInsightDescription
Author:Duane Michals
Create image

“No matter how much crap you gotta plow through to stay alive as a photographer, no matter how many bad assignments, bad days, bad clients, snotty subjects, obnoxious handlers, wigged-out art directors, technical disasters, failures of the mind, body, and will, all the shouldas, couldas, and wouldas that befuddle our brains and creep into our dreams, always remember to make room to shoot what you love. It's the only way to keep your heart beating as a photographer.”

WayMindHeartArtMatterDreamBodyRememberRoomsBrainAliveSubjectsDirectorsPhotographyArt IsPhotographerDisasterClientsCrapBad AssOur DreamsBad DayCreepsWhat You LoveAssignmentsStaying AliveObnoxiousHeart BeatMind BodyInspirational PhotographyHeart BeatingArt Director
Author:Joe McNally
Create image

“If it's a likeness, alone, it's not a success. If, through my portraits, you can come to know the subjects more meaningfully, if it synthesizes your feelings toward someone whose work has imprinted itself on your mind--if you see a photograph and say, 'Yes, this is the person,' with a little new insight--that is a beautiful experience.”

IfsKnowsMindLittlesPersonsFeelingsBeautifulSubjectsPhotographyPhotographerPhotographInsightPortraitsBeautiful Experiences
Author:Yousuf Karsh
Create image

“The element of discovery is very important. I don't repeat myself well. I want and need that stimulus of walking forward from one new world to another. There is something demoralizing about going back to a place to retake pictures. You can no longer see your subjects in a fresh eye; you keep comparing them with the pictures you hold in your memory. [The] world was full of discoveries waiting to be made...(as a photographer) I could share the things I saw and learned...you would react to something all others might walk by.”

WorldWantNeedsWellsMadeImportantMightEyeWaitingMemoriesWalksSawsShareSubjectsWalkingElementsPhotographyDiscoveryPhotographerCompareRepeatsNew WorldStimulusOur MemoriesWants And NeedsDemoralizingWalking Forward
Author:Margaret Bourke-White
Create image

“I think you reveal yourself by what you choose to photograph, but I prefer photographs that tell more about the subject. There's nothing much interesting to tell about me; what's interesting is the person I'm photographing, and that's what I try to show. [...] I think each photographer has a point of view and a way of looking at the world... that has to do with your subject matter and how you choose to present it. What's interesting is letting people tell you about themselves in the picture.”

PeopleThinkingWorldWayTryingPersonsMatterShowsInterestingViewsSubjectsPhotographyPhotographerPhotographPoint Of ViewYou ChooseSubject Matter
Author:Mary Ellen Mark
Create image

“I took to photography like a duck to water. I never wanted to do anything else. Excitement about the subject is the voltage which pushes me over the mountain of drudgery necessary to produce the final photograph.”

WantedWaterSubjectsProduceMountainPhotographyFinalsPhotographerPhotographExcitementDucksDrudgeryVoltage
Book:Berenice Abbott, photographer: a modern vision : a selection of photographs and essays
Create image

“Very often people looking at my pictures say, 'You must have had to wait a long time to get that cloud just right (or that shadow, or the light).' As a matter of fact, I almost never wait, that is, unless I can see that the thing will be right in a few minutes. But if I must wait an hour for the shadow to move, or the light to change, or the cow to graze in the other direction, then I put up my camera and go on, knowing that I am likely to find three subjects just as good in the same hour.”

PeopleIfsLongI CanMatterFactsLightMovingThreeWaitingHoursKnowingMinutesSubjectsGoes OnPhotographyLong TimeShadowCamerasPhotographerCloudsCowsMatter Of Fact
Book:Edward Weston on photography
Create image

“Give half a dozen men the same camera, lenses and plates, and send them to the same place to do the same thing, and all the results will be alike, or so nearly alike as to reveal the real mechanicalness of photography. Yet, curiously enough, this is just one of the most difficult things a photographer can be set to do, to exactly repeat himself, or another. He may use the identical apparatus, know the subject perfectly, and yet be totally unable to bring away an exact replica.”

KnowsMenGivingMayRealEnoughUseDifficultResultsHalfSubjectsPhotographyCamerasPhotographerRepeatsJust OneDozenPlatesLensesIdenticalDifficult ThingsReplicaCamera Lenses
Author:Frederick H. Evans
Create image

“I am not very interested in extraordinary angles. They can be effective on certain occasions, but I do not feel the necessity for them in my own work. Indeed, I feel the simplest approach can often be most effective. A subject placed squarely in the center of the frame, if attention is not distracted from it by fussy surroundings, has a simple dignity which makes it all the more impressive.”

IfsFeelsCertainMy OwnSimpleAttentionSubjectsApproachPhotographyDignityExtraordinaryPhotographerOccasionsAngleSimplestSurroundingsImpressiveDistractedOften IsFussy
Book:Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography
Create image

“What is the subject matter of this apparently very personal world? It has been suggested that these shapes and images are underworld characters, the inhabitants of the vast common realm of memories that have gone down below the level of conscious control. It may be they are. The degree of emotional involvement and the amount of free association with the material being photographed would point in that direction.”

WorldMayHas BeensMatterCharacterMemoriesLevelsCommonGoneSubjectsEmotionalMaterialsAmountShapesDegreesPhotographyConsciousPhotographerRealmsAssociationInvolvementSubject MatterUnderworld
Author:Aaron Siskind
Create image

“While a painting, even one that meets photographic standards of resemblance, is never more than the stating of an interpretation, a photograph is never less than the registering of an emanation (light waves reflected by objects) — a material vestige of its subject in a way that no painting can be.”

WayLightWould BeSubjectsObjectsPaintingMaterialsPhotographyStandardsCrossesPhotographWaveInterpretationNailsResemblanceResemblance IsLight Waves
Author:Susan Sontag
Create image

“In a foreign country it is far from easy to study a scene at length when you know that at any minute someone may appear and ask what you are doing and that you can't answer, and you haven't many references, and you don't know the law. Neither is it easy to find and know the subjects for portraits or comfortable to make such picture when you cannot apply an anesthesia of small talk.”

KnowsMayCountryLawAsksEasyAnswersStudyMinutesSubjectsHavensSceneComfortablePhotographyLengthPortraitsForeign CountriesSmall TalkAnesthesia
Book:Paul Strand: essays on his life and work
Create image

“I know some photographs that are extraodrinary in their power and conviction, but it is difficult in photography to overcome the superficial power or subject; the concept and statement must be quite convincing in themselves to win over a dramatic and compelling subject situation.”

KnowsWinningDifficultSituationSubjectsPhotographyConceptsOvercomingPhotographConvictionStatementsDramaticCompellingSuperficialConvincing
Book:Ansel Adams: An Autobiography
Create image

“The personality and style of a photographer usually limits the type of subject with which he deals best. For example Cartier-Bresson is very interested in people and in travel; these things plus his precise feeling for geometrical relationships determine the type of pictures he takes best. What is of value is that a particular photographer sees the subject differently. A good picture must be a completely individual expression which intrigues the viewer and forces him to think.”

PeopleThinkingFeelingsValuesIndividualForceDealsSubjectsStyleExampleParticularExpressionTypePersonalityLimitsPhotographyPhotographerDeterminePlusPreciseViewersIntrigueCartierIndividual Expression
Author:Alexey Brodovitch
Create image

“To make images is a way of ordering one's world, of exploring and understanding one's relationship to existence. ... The images we make are often ahead of our understanding, but to say "yes" to a subject is also to have recognized, however dimly, a part of oneself; to live with that image, to accept its significance is perhaps to grow in understanding.”

WorldWayGrowsUnderstandingExistenceAcceptingSubjectsPhotographyOneselfSignificanceExploring
Author:John Blakemore
Create image

“Through a portrait, we can potentially see everything — the history and depth of a person's life, as well as evidence of a primal universal presence. I have dedicated my life and creative energy to capturing these transcendent moments in which a connection is made between the subject, the photographer, and the viewer.”

WellsPersonsMadeMomentsEnergyCreativeSubjectsPhotographyEvidenceConnectionsUniversalDepthPhotographerDedicatedPortraitsViewersTranscendentPrimalCreative Energy
Author:Joyce Tenneson
Create image