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"To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event."
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Exlpore more Perception quotes
"Even if everybody is looking at the same light bulb, the unique composition of an individual will dictate how they interpret and see things. Some people will only see things with their left eye (mind/moon), while others will use only their right (heart/sun). Some people are completely void of light and repel it immediately. For instance, a beetle will chase after an opening of light, while a cockroach will scatter at a crack of it. How are we different than the insects? Nobody is purely good or purely evil. Most of us are in-between. There are moths that explore the day and butterflies that play at night. Polarity is an integral part of nature - human or not human."
"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place."
"Don't allow your imagination to colour events as lesser men would, and see movement in motionless things."
"For us, a pretty bird is a pretty bird; for an insect, pretty bird is an ugly enemy!"
"Appearance matters, we see your presentation before we get a chance to sample the substance within. You might miss a chance for the latter."
"That was the problem with the outside world, the human world. The whole thing was made up puzzles, of a language she didn't quite speak."
"There are many degrees of sight and many degrees of blindness. What senses do we lack that we cannot see another world all around us?"
"Everything is just how I imagined it, yet everything is new."
Explore more quotes by Henri Cartier-Bresson
"We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory."
"The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box."
"Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. During the work, you have to be sure that you haven't left any holes, that you've captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late."
"The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt."
"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again."
"During the work, you have to be sure that you haven't left any holes, that you've captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late."
"To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy."
"To take photographs means to recognize - simultaneously and within a fraction of a second - both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis."
"Think about the photo before and after, never during. The secret is to take your time. You mustn't go too fast. The subject must forget about you. Then, however, you must be very quick."
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