PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES III

quotations about photography

Photography quote

The definition of photography is changing, too, and becoming more of a language. We're attaching imagery to tweets or text messages, almost like a period at the end of a sentence. It's enhancing our communication in a whole new way.

JOSHUA ALLEN HARRIS

"In the Future, We Will Photograph Everything and Look at Nothing", The New Yorker, April 4, 2016


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


It is a cruel, ironical art, photography. The dragging of captured moments into the future; moments that should have been allowed to be evaporate into the past; should exist only in memories, glimpsed through the fog of events that came after. Photographs force us to see people before their future weighed them down.

KATE MORTON

The House at Riverton


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

ANSEL ADAMS

attributed, Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age


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


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

HENRI-CARTIER-BRESSON

Pix, 1993


The act of photography is like going on a hunt in which photographer and camera merge into one indivisible function. This is a hunt for new states of things, situations never seen before, for the improbable, for information.

VILEM FLUSSER

Towards a Philosophy of Photography

Tags: Vilem Flusser


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


The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion.

RICHARD AVEDON

attributed, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance


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


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


To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed.

SUSAN SONTAG

On Photography

Tags: Susan Sontag


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


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


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 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


One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind. To live a visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable. I have only touched it, just touched it.

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


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