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Quotes by Photographer
"It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators."
57
"A very subtle difference can make the picture or not."
56
"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."
56
"My surprises come usually once I start rolling and photographing."
55
"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."
55
"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?"
54
"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."
54
"I think hard drugs are disgusting. But I must say, I think marijuana is pretty lightweight."
54
"From the first moment I handled my lens with a tender ardour."
54
"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."
53
"The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways."
53
"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."
53
"Uncle Brett had a definite vision that he was after, I don't think having a famous father affected him much."
53
"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."
53
"Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true."
52
"When I work, and in my art, I hold hands with God."
52
"To me, that is the essence of me as a photographer. It is those ideas, working with them, formulating them and eventually putting them down on paper, photographing them and then going on to the next step."
52
"As soon as you forbid something, you make it extraordinarily appealing. You also bring shame in as a phenomenon."
51
"It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter."
51
"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."
51
"Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution."
51
"San Francisco is perhaps the most European of all American cities."
51
"Never boss people around. It's more important to click with people than to click the shutter."
51
"At my Rolling Stones' tour, the camera was a protection. I used it in a Zen way."
50
"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."
50
"My photographs are not planned or composed in advance, and I do not anticipate that the onlooker will share my viewpoint. However, I feel that if my photograph leaves an image on his mind, something has been accomplished."
50
"I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied."
50
"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."
50
"A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in us, how would we ever recognize it?"
50
"Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay."
50
"When you go to take someone's picture, the first thing they say is, what you want me to do? Everyone is very awkward."
49
"I should try to get some sleep as one doesn't know what tomorrow may bring."
49
"Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation."
49
"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."
49
"Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment."
49
"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."
49
"Lennon was very helpful. What he taught me seems completely obvious: he expected people to treat each other well."
48
"I will always admit immediately to what's obvious, which is that Homo sapiens is inherently erotic or inherently sensual from birth."
48
"Washington, D.C. in 1942 was not the easiest place in the world for a Negro to get along."
48
"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."
48
"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."
48
"I don't think there is anything wrong with white space. I don't think it's a problem to have a blank wall."
48
"My lifestyle is bizarre, but the only thing you need to know is where the darkroom is."
47
"Coming tight was boring to me, just the face... it didn't have enough information."
47
"There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. This kind of photography is realism. But realism is not enough - there has to be vision, and the two together can make a good photograph."
47
"Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness."
47
"I have many times thought I did the wrong thing, but the reason was not to be a medical doctor - it was just to have the information. But then, maybe I was wrong, I don't know."
47
"The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality."
47
"There is only one optimist. He has been here since man has been on this earth, and that is man himself. If we hadn't had such a magnificent optimism to carry us through all these things, we wouldn't be here. We have survived it on our optimism."
47
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