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Photography Quotes
"Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk."
93
"When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration."
92
"Wherever there is light, one can photograph."
88
"Wanting to take a light camera with me when I climb or do mountain runs has kept me using exclusively 35 mm."
87
"The camera makes you forget you're there. It's not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much."
81
"A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words."
78
"You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery."
74
"It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators."
72
"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."
72
"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."
71
"I am very much aware of the visual side of things. I do a lot of photography. I often take Polaroids of things that strike me as visually interesting, just to remember them and perhaps use later."
71
"George Lucas wanted this moving camera for all of the photography in Star Wars. He was willing to take a risk with the concepts that I advanced with regard to ways for doing that."
71
"Once you get the right image the details aren't that important."
66
"Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman."
65
"A woman said to me when she first sat down, You're photographing the wrong side of my face. I said, Oh, is there one?"
63
"I think that cognitive scientists would support the view that our visual system does not directly represent what is out there in the world and that our brain constructs a lot of the imagery that we believe we are seeing."
63
"Contrast is what makes photography interesting."
63
"I rode it once, which was up the driveway in the opening credits of the show. I didn't know how to stop it. I actually nearly killed the director of photography, and I smashed into the sound truck."
62
"The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses."
62
"I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself."
61
"My surprises come usually once I start rolling and photographing."
60
"Never boss people around. It's more important to click with people than to click the shutter."
60
"Videos are more like photography. It's not as much about trying to tell a story as it is creating images."
59
"When I'm ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I'm interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without."
59
"The closer the source of light is to a subject, the broader the beams are."
59
"Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true."
58
"Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child."
58
"When you go to take someone's picture, the first thing they say is, what you want me to do? Everyone is very awkward."
57
"My lifestyle is bizarre, but the only thing you need to know is where the darkroom is."
57
"And I remember walking in there and, I must say, I was quite unnerved the closer I got to it."
57
"In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view. The image may not be literally what's going on, but it's representative."
57
"I always say that I don't want to be sentimental, that the photographs shouldn't be sentimental, and yet, I am conscious of my sentimentality."
57
"I told the students that whatever they did in class was for the wastebasket."
57
"At my Rolling Stones' tour, the camera was a protection. I used it in a Zen way."
56
"Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does."
56
"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."
56
"It's important to know that if you are dealing with shadows."
55
"The problem of direct colour photography has been facing us since the turn of the last century."
54
"For me, the most important thing I learned was just honing my eye. I think I had a good eye."
53
"She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes."
52
"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."
52
"Today my passion is still black and white. Today if I have an array of cameras in front of me the one I would reach for that I would feel most comfortable with would be a 4 X 5 View camera. I was once working in a sort of soft light situation."
51
"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."
51
"I became interested in photography when I found my own sketching was inadequate."
51
"I never stopped photographing. There were a couple of years when I didn't have a darkroom, but that didn't stop me from photographing."
51
"There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are."
50
"Today, I'm very careful not to mention very specific locations when I write or give captions."
49
"I've been working with photography for many years."
49
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