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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."
83
"When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration."
80
"Wherever there is light, one can photograph."
74
"Wanting to take a light camera with me when I climb or do mountain runs has kept me using exclusively 35 mm."
69
"The camera makes you forget you're there. It's not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much."
69
"You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery."
66
"A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words."
65
"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."
61
"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."
59
"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."
57
"It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators."
55
"Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman."
55
"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."
54
"Contrast is what makes photography interesting."
54
"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."
53
"Once you get the right image the details aren't that important."
52
"My surprises come usually once I start rolling and photographing."
51
"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?"
51
"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."
50
"Never boss people around. It's more important to click with people than to click the shutter."
49
"When you go to take someone's picture, the first thing they say is, what you want me to do? Everyone is very awkward."
48
"At my Rolling Stones' tour, the camera was a protection. I used it in a Zen way."
48
"Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true."
48
"It's important to know that if you are dealing with shadows."
48
"The closer the source of light is to a subject, the broader the beams are."
48
"Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child."
48
"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."
47
"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."
47
"The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses."
47
"Videos are more like photography. It's not as much about trying to tell a story as it is creating images."
46
"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."
46
"And I remember walking in there and, I must say, I was quite unnerved the closer I got to it."
45
"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."
45
"My lifestyle is bizarre, but the only thing you need to know is where the darkroom is."
44
"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."
44
"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."
43
"I became interested in photography when I found my own sketching was inadequate."
43
"I told the students that whatever they did in class was for the wastebasket."
43
"There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are."
42
"She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes."
42
"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."
42
"For me, the most important thing I learned was just honing my eye. I think I had a good eye."
42
"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."
42
"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."
40
"One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind."
40
"Anyone can write one book: even politicians do it. Starting a second book reveals an intention to be a professional writer."
39
"The problem of direct colour photography has been facing us since the turn of the last century."
38
"I've been working with photography for many years."
37
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