Photographic quotes

Tringa

Tringa

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Are there any quotes about photography that you think hit the nail on the head?

The one attributed to Henri Cartier-Bresson that your first 10,000 photographs are your worse rings true, but he was obviously much more talented then me.

I also like this one from the man who produced some of the best photos I have seen. "There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept" - Ansel Adams


Dave
 
“If your pictures are not good enough, you aren't reading enough.”

Tod Papageorge
 
"No photographer is as good as the simplest camera" Edward Steichen.
"If you're looking for the perfect camera, save your shoe leather - there's no such thing" Denys Davies, quote from memory.
“to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection" Edward Weston.
 
Identify your objectives. Be clear in your mind what you want to say about the subject. Is it beautiful ? Is it menacing ? Don't shoot unless you know what the message of your picture is going to be. - Bob Carlos Clarke
 
“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.” – Ansel Adams

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams

“Which of my photographs is my favourite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.” — Imogen Cunningham
 
“The important thing is not to have an aim, I just go out the door and, what ever’s real, I try and deal with that.”
Tom Wood

"The real world is infinitely more interesting than anything you try to invent in a studio."
Paul Reas

"To think that you can come up with a better idea than what the world is offering you (in exchange for a little patience) is foolhardy. Life is more creative than you. Spend some time looking around and it will give you images that you could never imagine yourself."
Kenneth Jarecke

"Art is too big a word for me. It has too many letters in it."
Lee Friedlander

“To say the word “Art”, it’s almost like a curse on art.”
Joel Meyerowitz
 
"One of the great problems with photography is that any t*** you give a camera to can take a photograph. What that does to the photographer is immediately create an inferiority complex within him because anyone can do it, which of course they can" - Brian Duffy
 
I was googling this very thing recently as I wanted to put quotes like these in my college portfolio and came across this video from DigitalRev on YouTube. 12 minutes long, but some of the quotes are quite good (well they are for my purposes anyway lol). Some of the narrative that goes along with them can be a bit tiresome and got on my bloody nerves by the end of it tbh.
 
'It's like Bryan Adams taking photographs, it's a f@cking joke! Someone once asked me, 'what are Bryan Adam's photographs like?' and I said, 'they're probably nearly as good as his music. For me, he's not a real photographer - a photographer goes to college, learns their craft, reads books, learns their sh!t. I'm not a mediocre photographer, there's nothing mediocre about me.'

- Rankin, in Professional Photographer magazine, confirming that, to become a photographer, you should go to college, read books and learn your sh!t.
 
DT01 said:
'It's like Bryan Adams taking photographs, it's a f@cking joke! Someone once asked me, 'what are Bryan Adam's photographs like?' and I said, 'they're probably nearly as good as his music. For me, he's not a real photographer - a photographer goes to college, learns their craft, reads books, learns their sh!t. I'm not a mediocre photographer, there's nothing mediocre about me.'

- Rankin, in Professional Photographer magazine, confirming that, to become a photographer, you should go to college, read books and learn your sh!t.
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Rankin there proving he's a bit of a jumped up s***.
 
"All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice" - Elliot Erwitt. He's awesome.

"Photography takes an instant out of time. Altering life by holding it still" - Dorothea Lange

{Edit to add} - "If you needed amazing light you’d never get a good picture in Manchester." - Kevin Cummins.
 
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"Can you photograph heat in a way that conveys its hotness? Can you photograph water and make the picture feel wet, rather than just look like a picture of water?" - on Composition and Improvisation (2014), Larry Fink (1941 - )
 
Not intended as a photographic statement but I find it very relevant.

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts" - Uncle Albert (Einstein not Trotter :))
 
Here's one to ponder upon ...

"A photograph is always invisible; it is not it that we see" ... Roland Barthes.
 
I'm really enjoying the responses to this thread - especially when you compare the quotes content to the posts people have made about their own approach to their work...

cracking idea for a thread :thumbs:
 
Alberto Korda: “If my students talk about the technical side of photography, I tell them it’s not about that. You can learn to operate a camera and work in the darkroom and still be mediocre. What you have to do is to take photographs which create an emotion within you.”
 
Cecil Beaton - 'Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert the integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.'
 
I have one of my favourites in my signature

My other favourite is this:

Crocodile Dundee (1986)
Neville Bell: Oh no, you can't take my photograph.
Sue Charlton: Oh, I'm sorry, you believe it will take your spirit away.
Neville Bell: No, you got lens-cap on it

My husband always says right before I take a photo "you've got lens cap on it" in a terrible Australian accent. Makes me laugh every time!
 
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My favorite has been my signature here on TP for a while

"You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus" - Mark Twain
 
"You've got to push yourself harder. You've got to start looking for pictures nobody else could take. You've got to take the tools you have and probe deeper." William Albert Allard
 
My own favourite is attributed to Bailey, but similar lines have been used by other photographers too.

[this is roughly it, possibly paraphrased]

Interviewer: "What's your favourite light source Mr Bailey?"
DB: "I'm happy with available light"
Interviewer: "You mean natural light?"
DB: "No, I mean any ****ing light that's available"
 
The quickest way to make money from photography is to sell your camera.
 
Another of my favourites:

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” - Ansel Adams
 
kelack said:
I have one of my favourites in my signature

My other favourite is this:

Crocodile Dundee (1986)
Neville Bell: Oh no, you can't take my photograph.
Sue Charlton: Oh, I'm sorry, you believe it will take your spirit away.
Neville Bell: No, you got lens-cap on it

My husband always says right before I take a photo "you've got lens cap on it" in a terrible Australian accent. Makes me laugh every time!
Click to expand...

This from Crocodile Dundee has always been one of my favourites as well because of the fact that she is using a SLR camera, and therefore would have known she had the lens cap on as she wouldn't have been able to see anything. :rolleyes:
 
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My favourites are all from Zack Arias, maybe I need to read more...

"So many people think cameras and lenses are getting better. They are. But cameras are stupid no matter how 'great' they are. They know nothing. They don't come with vision. There isn't a Decisive Moment indicator light in the viewfinder. There's no Avedon button on the back. The most important piece of gear for a photographer is their brain."

"If you're saying in your head, 'oh, I'll just fix that later in photoshop', stop what you're doing and slap yourself as hard as you can."

And the one I think best sums up the attitude I try to have...

"Knowing your faults is a good thing. Know where your weakness is and work on that stuff. But sitting around comparing yourself, your work, your clients to others never seems to help. Turn your attitude around and rejoice when you see great work and great clients from other photographers. It really does give you hope that you too can find some success.

Do you suck? Well, of course you do! Your work ain't sh*t....

Yet.

See how powerful 'yet' is? Yet is one of the most powerful words in the dictionary. Yet is a goal. Yet is a destination, a point on the horizon. Yet is awesome. It means you're on your way."
 
"Film is cheap"
Meaning "take loads of pictures and don't worry about the cost".
 
"What the eye doesn't see, the chef gets away with!" Terry from Fawlty Towers. (Basil the Rat)
 
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steveo_mcg said:
Who ever said that never priced up 8x10 Velvia...
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when I was using that stuff, most of the time the film was paid for/provided by the client. And, even then, compared to the cost of rebuilding an entire set and re-shooting taking another couple of days in a hired studio - film IS cheap.
 
"Non-artists who want to be photographers often take much longer, if ever, to create decent images because they have been misled into worrying too much about trivial issues like noise and lens sharpness instead of the real issues of light, color, composition and gesture. Want to learn photography? Study painting. "

"People need to spend more time in art school and researching how to say things than worrying about gear or technique."

"Worry about what you're trying to say, and worry less about your camera."

"Get me excited. Wake me up. Show me your town. Show what's special to you. Show me your point of view — but whatever you do, do something!"

Ken Rockwell. :D
 
"Snaps, Sidney? I don't take snaps. I paint with light." Kenneth Williams
 
I've never been one for studying other toggers a LOT (I used to like Man Ray, but would never wish to copy his style). I decided to follow up the list of quotes linked by Ian, and it made me realise that I do have a personal approach to what and why I shoot & process. It wasn't a surprise to agree with many Ansel Adams quotes, but it was to find one from David Bailey. In particular these stood out:

A good photograph is knowing where to stand. Ansel Adams

Results are uncertain even among the more experienced photographers. Matthew Brady

The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score and the print the performance. Ansel Adams

I began to realize that the camera sees the world differently than the human eye and that sometimes those differences can make a photograph more powerful than what you actually observed. Galen Rowell

The more you photograph, the more you realize what can and what can't be photographed. You just have to keep doing it. Eliot Porter

Photography has no rules, it is not a sport. It is the result which counts, no matter how it is achieved. Bill Brandt

In the world of photography, you get to share a captured moment with other people. James Wilson

I do not object to retouching, dodging or accentuation as long as they do not interfere with the natural qualities of photographic technique. Alfred Stieglitz

It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators. Ansel Adams

For me the printing process is part of the magic of photography. It's that magic that can be exciting, disappointing, rewarding and frustrating all in the same few moments in the darkroom. John Sexton

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary. David Bailey

Once the amateur's naive approach and humble willingness to learn fades away, the creative spirit of good photography dies with it. Every professional should remain always in his heart an amateur. Alfred Eisenstaedt

What it all boils down to for me is having the enthusiasm to do something for enjoyment and being stimulated by what's around you. That's what photography does for me. Graeme Le Saux
 
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