PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES III

quotations about photography

Photography quote

Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.

ELLIOTT ERWITT

attributed, "100 inspirational photography quotes", Shootzilla


Photography suits the temper of this age -- of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately.

EDWARD WESTON

The Daybooks of Edward Weston

Tags: Edward Weston


The photograph extends and multiplies the human image to the proportions of mass-produced merchandise. The movie stars and matinee idols are put in the public domain by photography. They become dreams that money can buy.

MARSHALL MCLUHAN

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

Tags: Marshall McLuhan


The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous.

WILLIAM ALBERT ALLARD

attributed, Fine Art Photography: Water, Ice, and Fog


What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce.

KARL LAGERFELD

attributed, Click You!

Tags: Karl Lagerfeld


You put your camera around your neck in the morning, along with putting on your shoes, and there it is, an appendage of the body that shares your life with you.

DOROTHEA LANGE

Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life


Life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference and it is important to see what is invisible to others.

ROBERT FRANK

attributed, Photographic Possibilities


Several years ago, I went through a painful writer's block -- a period of silence that lasted six or seven months. I'm convinced that the only thing that really saved me, and led me back to the page, was taking a class in black and white photography. In fact, living with a camera around my neck for a year, and hunting for pictures to shoot, taught me a lot about the importance of the image and its relationship to narrative in writing, something I'd struggled with before discovering photography.

TRACY K. SMITH

interview, Gulf Coast, vol. 17, number 1

Tags: Tracy K. Smith


My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, or the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.

EDWARD WESTON

attributed, Pictures on a Page: Photojournalism and Picture Editing


Photography is a fickle art. You might start with the plan to shoot perfume bottles and end up doing corporate portraits. You might think at some point in your career that uber retouched imagery is your signature only to realize that the natural look that you though so boring is becoming a key ingredient in your style. Yes there are individuals who have a distinct style even when they are toddlers but for the rest of us -- human beings -- our art is forged by the gruesome practice of trail and fail.

ANNA DABROWSKA

"Why Professional Gear Is Not The Most Important Element in Photography", Fstoppers, April 20, 2016


There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.

ANSEL ADAMS

attributed, Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age


A great image is a great image, no matter who took it, where they live, and whether they were using a phone or the most expensive camera.

MIKE BETTS

"Community for Photography Photocrowd Seeks £450,000 Through Crowdcube", Crowd Fund Insider, April 28, 2016


We think of photography as the intersection of science and art.

EDWIN H. LAND

attributed, Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land

Tags: Edwin H. Land


When I look at my old pictures, all I can see is what I used to be but am no longer. I think: What I can see is what I am not.

ALEKSANDAR HEMON

The Lazarus Project


Photography is more than a means of recording the obvious. It is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever, whether it be a face or a flower, a place or a thing, a day or a moment.

AARON SISKIND

attributed, The Amateur Photographer's Handbook


Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.

MARC RIBOUD

FotoFest 90: The International Month of Photography: February 10-March 10


The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

DOROTHEA LANGE

Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life


The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget.

JOHN BERGER

About Looking

Tags: John Berger


To photograph ... is to put in the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.

HENRI-CARTIER-BRESSON

Pix, 1993


A photograph is a moral decision taken in one eighth of a second.

SALMAN RUSHDIE

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Tags: Salman Rushdie