PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES III

quotations about photography

Photography quote

In order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes.

ROLAND BARTHES

Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography

Tags: Roland Barthes


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


The camera is a perfect companion. It makes no demands, imposes no obligations. It becomes your notebook and your reference library, your microscope and your telescope. It sees what you are too lazy or too careless to notice, and it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.

AARON SISKIND

attributed, The Amateur Photographer's Handbook


Photography knows how to authenticate its misrepresentations.

MASON COOLEY

City Aphorisms

Tags: Mason Cooley


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


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


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


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


After all, the decisive quality in a photographer is the faculty of seeing certain things and being tempted by them.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

"George Bernard Shaw on Coburn's Photography", British Journal of Photography, 1906

Tags: George Bernard Shaw


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

MARC RIBOUD

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


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

ANSEL ADAMS

attributed, Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age


I love things like Instagram and Pinterest. I get so many ideas just by getting a daily digest of images from great photographers who I follow on social media. What that also does is it tells me which pictures stand out to me, then I can analyse them and try and work out what it is about that particular image that had me mesmerised for longer than a glance.

GUY SEBASTIAN

"Guy Sebastian shares his photography tips", Sunshine Coast Daily, April 26, 2016


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


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


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


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

DOROTHEA LANGE

Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life


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

SALMAN RUSHDIE

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Tags: Salman Rushdie


It is in these moments of stillness where I can really appreciate the little hidden surprises at every turn, the small details that often go unnoticed as we hurtle through our days. When you stop, take a deep breath, and find your sense of wonder, you surprise yourself with the beauty that lies in your frame.

GUY SEBASTIAN

"Guy Sebastian shares his photography tips", Sunshine Coast Daily, April 26, 2016


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


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

HENRI-CARTIER-BRESSON

Pix, 1993