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"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."
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"I do house things. I paint. I do portraits. I also paint my house."

"The best portraits are those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature."

"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."
Explore more quotes by Henri Cartier-Bresson

"Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes."

"Actually, I'm not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the picture is in the box, I'm not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren't cooks."

"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."

"In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv."

"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."

"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 photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality."

"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."

"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."

"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."
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