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"A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words."
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"He took twelve pictures that day.Within a few days he showed me the contact sheet. 'This one has the magic,' he said. When I look at it now, I never see me. I see us."

"What I end up shooting is the situation. I shoot the composition and my subject is going to help the composition or not."

"My surprises come usually once I start rolling and photographing."

"In the decline of the day, near Kentucky river, as we ascended the brow of a small hill, a number of Indians rushed out of a thick cane-brake upon us, and made us prisoners."

"Videos are more like photography. It's not as much about trying to tell a story as it is creating images."

"And I remember walking in there and, I must say, I was quite unnerved the closer I got to it."

"Your camera is the best critic there is. Critics never see as much as the camera does. It is more perceptive than the human eye."

"Writers are frequently asked why they wrote their first book. A more interesting answer might come from asking them why they wrote their second one."

"I think landscape photography in general is somewhat undervalued."
Explore more quotes by Ansel Adams

"A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed."

"Some photographers take reality... and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation."

"To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things."

"No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit."

"These people live again in print as intensely as when their images were captured on old dry plates of sixty years ago... I am walking in their alleys, standing in their rooms and sheds and workshops, looking in and out of their windows. Any they in turn seem to be aware of me."

"We must remember that a photograph can hold just as much as we put into it, and no one has ever approached the full possibilities of the medium."

"Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit."

"In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular... sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice."
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