Photography Quotes

I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term -- meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching -- there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.

'To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, 'There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.'

Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

Maybe because it's entirely an artist's eye, patience and skill that makes an image and not his tools.

Your equipment DOES NOT affect the quality of your image. The less time and effort you spend worrying about your equipment the more time and effort you can spend creating great images. The right equipment just makes it easier, faster or more convenient for you to get the results you need.

The camera's only job is to get out of the way of making photographs.

The camera doesn't make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE.

Best wide-angle lens? Two steps backward. Look for the 'ah-ha'.

No matter how advanced your camera you still need to be responsible for getting it to the right place at the right time and pointing it in the right direction to get the photo you want.

Photography, fortunately, to me has not only been a profession but also a contact between people - to understand human nature and record, if possible, the best in each individual.

We try to grab pieces of our lives as they speed past us. Photographs freeze those pieces and help us remember how we were. We don't know these lost people but if you look around, you'll find someone just like them.

No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen.

They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

Saturate yourself with your subject and the camera will all but take you by the hand.

A good photograph is knowing where to stand.

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into.

A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.

Not everybody trusts paintings, but people believe photographs.

Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.

I have discovered photography. Now I can kill myself. I have nothing else to learn.