Photographer Quotes - Page 12

• C.S. Lewis admitted, when he was asked to set forth his beliefs, that he never felt less sure of them than when he tried to speak of them. Photographers know this frailty. To them words are a pallid, diffuse way of describing and celebrating what matters. Their gift is to see what will be affecting as a print. Mute.

  Robert Adams

  What Matters, Way, Belief

  Robert Adams (1994). “Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews”

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• I've been so lonely trying to become a photographer. If I'd known that before, I don't know if I had the courage to do it again. You get to a point where you feel that you have something that is your own. And if you don't find an audience for it, you are going to burst.

  Robert Adams

  Photography, Lonely, Trying

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• Why is Form beautiful? Because, I think, it helps us confront our worst fear: the suspicion that life may be chaos and that therefore our suffering is without meaning.

  Robert Adams

  Beautiful, Thinking, Suffering

  "Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values". Book by Robert Adams, June 15, 2005.

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• Art depends on there being affection in its creator's life and an artist must find ways, like everyone else, to nourish it. A photographer down on his or her knees picturing a dog has found pleasure enough to make many things possible.

  Robert Adams

  Dog, Art, Knees

  Robert Adams (1994). “Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews”

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• Actually, documentary pictures include every subject in the world - good, bad, indifferent. I have yet to see a fine photograph which is not a good document.

  Berenice Abbott

  World, Documentaries, Fine

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• The photographs that excite me are photographs that say something in a new manner; not for the sake of being different but ones that are different because the individual is different and the individual expresses himself.

  Harry Callahan

  Photography, Being Different, Sake

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• Laymen learn to read photographs the way they do headlines, skipping over them quickly to get the gist of what is being said. Photographers, on the other hand, study them with the care and attention to detail one might give to a difficult scientific paper or a complicated poem.

  Howard S. Becker

  Hands, Giving, Details

  Creative Camera, №№ 163 - 174, 1978.

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• Different levels of photography require different levels of understanding and skill. A "press the button, let George do the rest" photographer needs little or no technical knowledge of photography. A zone system photographer takes more responsibility. He visualizes before he presses the button, and afterwards calibrates for predictable print values.

  Minor White

  Photography, Responsibility, Skills

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• A picture is like a prayer.

  Harry Callahan

  Photography, Prayer

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• I do believe strongly in photography and hope by following it intuitively that when the photographs are looked at they will touch the spirit in people.

  Harry Callahan

  Photography, Believe, People

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• I like the simple things. I don't know why. I'm that way. I came from a simple place.

  Harry Callahan

  Photography, Simple, Way

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• I went on a long trip through South America with Prince Charles where I was the only journalist there - a couple of photographers but no other writers.

  Anthony Holden

  Couple, Journey, America

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• They often ask me to shoot for them. But I say no. I think an old guy like me ought not take pages away from young photographers who need the exposure.

  Helmut Newton

  Thinking, Guy, Needs

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• There's a kind of power thing about the camera. I mean everyone knows you've got some edge. You're carrying some magic which does something to them. It fixes them in a way.

  Diane Arbus

  Mean, Magic, Cameras

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• Larry Schwarm's photographs of fire on the prairie are so compelling that I cannot imagine any later photographer trying to do better. His pictures convince us that seemingly far away events are close by, relevant to any serious person's life.

  Robert Adams

  Fire, Convince Us, Serious Person

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• If each photograph steals a bit of the soul, isn't it possible that I give up pieces of mine every time I take a picture?

  Richard Avedon

  Giving Up, Soul, Pieces

  "Picture of the week: Women, by Richard Avedon" by Hannah Booth, www.theguardian.com. September 20, 2013.

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• The pictures have a reality for me that the people don't. It is through the photographs that I know them.

  Richard Avedon

  Reality, People, Knows

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• The photographer’s vision convinces us to the degree that the photographer hides his hand.

  John Szarkowski

  Hands, Convince Us, Vision

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• A picture should be looked at - not talked about.

  Elliott Erwitt

  Photography, Should

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• I discovered that this camera was the technical means in photography of communicating what the world looks like in a state of heightened awareness. And it's that awareness of really looking at the everyday world with clear and focused attention that I'm interested in.

  Stephen Shore

  Photography, Mean, Everyday

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• The camera is my tool. Through it I give a reason to everything around me.

  Andre Kertesz

  Photography, Giving, Cameras

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• At our best and most fortunate we make pictures because of what stands before our camera, to honor what is greater and more interesting than we are. We never accomplish this perfectly, though in return we are given something perfect--a sense of inclusion. Our subject thus redefines us, and is part of the biography by which we want to be known.

  Robert Adams

  Perfect, Interesting, Honor

  Robert Adams (1994). “Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews”

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• All dancers are, by and large, a photographer's dream. They communicate with their bodies and they are trained to be completely responsive to a collaborative situation.

  Annie Leibovitz

  Dream, Dancer, Body

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• I looked through a lens and ended up abandoning everything else.

  Sebastiao Salgado

  Photography, Lenses

  "Portrait of the artist: Sebastião Salgado, photographer". Interview With Laura Barnett, www.theguardian.com. February 28, 2012.

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• When I was just starting out, I met Cartier-Bresson. He wasn't young in age but, in his mind, he was the youngest person I'd ever met. He told me it was necessary to trust my instincts, be inside my work, and set aside my ego. In the end, my photography turned out very different to his, but I believe we were coming from the same place.

  Sebastiao Salgado

  Photography, Believe, Ego

  "Portrait of the artist: Sebastião Salgado, photographer". Interview With Laura Barnett, www.theguardian.com. February 28, 2012.

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