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Quotes by Photographer
"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."
178
"A true portrait should, today and a hundred years from today, the Testimony of how this person looked and what kind of human being he was."
139
"The camera is my tool. Through it I give a reason to everything around me."
137
"It's to surprise people about something that is extremely well known. I mean human reproduction, the human body, nature and so on. To surprise them with a new technique."
131
"Of the thousands of people, celebrated and unknown, who have sat before my camera, I am often asked who was the most difficult subject, or the easiest, or which picture is my favorite. This last question is like asking a mother which child she likes the most."
123
"The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention."
83
"A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people."
80
"My lens of choice was always the 35 mm. It was more environmental. You can't come in closer with the 35 mm."
80
"Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past."
80
"Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk."
79
"Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping."
79
"Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness."
78
"When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration."
75
"It's the way to educate your eyes. Stare. Pry, listen eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long."
75
"People want security in this insecure world."
73
"To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event."
73
"Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected."
71
"I still need the camera because it is the only reason anyone is talking to me."
71
"Wherever there is light, one can photograph."
70
"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."
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."
66
"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything."
66
"The truth is the best picture, the best propaganda."
65
"I like going to Church for aesthetic reasons, rather than spiritual ones."
64
"Within every man and woman a secret is hidden, and as a photographer it is my task to reveal it if I can."
64
"Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships."
62
"Whenever you make love to someone, there should be three people involved - you, the other person, and the devil."
61
"A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words."
61
"There is a new way with very very tiny fiber optics, which give an enormous high resolution. There are many many thousand fibers, very very close together with a very small diameter."
60
"Wanting to take a light camera with me when I climb or do mountain runs has kept me using exclusively 35 mm."
60
"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."
60
"A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed."
60
"It's not enough to have talent, you also have to be Hungarian."
58
"You know, the camera is not meant just to show misery."
58
"The still must tease with the promise of a story the viewer of it itches to be told."
57
"I have been frequently accused of deliberately twisting subject matter to my point of view. Above all, I know that life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference. Opinion often consists of a kind of criticism. But criticism can come out of love."
56
"In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality."
56
"We've already seen how it's going to come in, in a truck, like it did at Oklahoma City at the Federal building or it's going to come in by plane, like it did at the World Trade Center."
56
"Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual."
54
"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."
53
"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."
53
"Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman."
52
"Where there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see."
52
"It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators."
51
"The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance."
51
"A very subtle difference can make the picture or not."
50
"When I first toured with Wings things that were said about me were true - I did sing out of tune."
50
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