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Quotes by Photographer
"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."
39
"I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways."
39
"My surprises come usually once I start rolling and photographing."
38
"Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman."
38
"The challenge for me has first been to see things as they are, whether a portrait, a city street, or a bouncing ball. In a word, I have tried to be objective."
38
"There are many teachers who could ruin you. Before you know it you could be a pale copy of this teacher or that teacher. You have to evolve on your own."
38
"San Francisco is perhaps the most European of all American cities."
38
"It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators."
37
"Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true."
37
"When I work, and in my art, I hold hands with God."
37
"From the first moment I handled my lens with a tender ardour."
37
"People have to find ways of explaining the work."
37
"Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay."
37
"And I think that after nearly 85 years upon this planet that I have a right after working so hard at showing the desolation and the poverty, to show something beautiful for somebody as well."
37
"The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance."
37
"I have the worst ear for criticism; even when I have created a stage set I like, I always hear the woman in the back of the dress circle who says she doesn't like blue."
36
"As soon as you forbid something, you make it extraordinarily appealing. You also bring shame in as a phenomenon."
36
"I didn't want to let women down. One of the stereotypes I see breaking is the idea of aging and older women not being beautiful."
36
"It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter."
36
"I should try to get some sleep as one doesn't know what tomorrow may bring."
36
"I think hard drugs are disgusting. But I must say, I think marijuana is pretty lightweight."
36
"I've created a vocabulary of different styles. I draw from many different ways to take a picture. Sometimes I go back to reportage, to journalism."
36
"At my Rolling Stones' tour, the camera was a protection. I used it in a Zen way."
35
"Lennon was very helpful. What he taught me seems completely obvious: he expected people to treat each other well."
35
"I'm not faithful to one particular medium, and it's what I try to teach to people who work with me."
35
"I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied."
35
"I want to be as honest as I can about the things I've been through - the sorrows and joys, victories and defeats - and to use those experiences as a well to draw from. Hopefully, the songs that result from that kind of writing will be songs that mean something to others."
34
"You do your work as a photographer and everything becomes past. Words are more like thoughts; the photographer's picture is always surrounded by a kind of romantic glamor - no matter what you do, and how you twist it."
34
"I don't think there is anything wrong with white space. I don't think it's a problem to have a blank wall."
34
"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."
33
"I will always admit immediately to what's obvious, which is that Homo sapiens is inherently erotic or inherently sensual from birth."
33
"People are so wonderful that a photographer has only to wait for that breathless moment to capture what he wants on film."
33
"Coming tight was boring to me, just the face... it didn't have enough information."
33
"The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways."
33
"On close inspection, this device turned out to be a funereal juke box - the result of mixing Lloyd's of London with the principle of the chewing gum dispenser."
33
"Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment."
33
"When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I'd like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph."
Want,
33
"In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv."
32
"I try and play 2 or 3 times a week to stay on my game."
32
"My hope is that we continue to nurture the places that we love, but that we also look outside our immediate worlds."
32
"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?"
32
"Washington, D.C. in 1942 was not the easiest place in the world for a Negro to get along."
32
"A lot of people think that when you have grand scenery, such as you have in Yosemite, that photography must be easy."
32
"Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors."
32
"There's no question that photographs communicate more instantly and powerfully than words do, but if you want to communicate a complex concept clearly, you need words, too."
32
"It's a heavy weight, the camera. Now we have modern and lightweight, small plastic cameras, but in the '70s they were heavy metal."
32
"I like photographing the people I love, the people I admire, the famous, and especially the infamous. My last infamous subject was the extreme right wing French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen."
32
"Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera."
32
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