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Quotes by Photographer
"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."
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"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."
26
"I've been with Life now for seventeen years and I have written several articles for them and will be doing more writing and do at least two assignments a year besides my writing."
26
"The man at Kodak told me the shots were very good and if I kept it up, they would give me an exhibition. Later, Kodak gave me my first exhibition."
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"It's a heavy weight, the camera. Now we have modern and lightweight, small plastic cameras, but in the '70s they were heavy metal."
26
"I don't think there is anything wrong with white space. I don't think it's a problem to have a blank wall."
26
"When you go to take someone's picture, the first thing they say is, what you want me to do? Everyone is very awkward."
25
"But I wanted marriage for myself. I was not calculating about it. I wish I was more calculating."
25
"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."
25
"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."
25
"I turn people into human beings by not making them into gods."
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"I find it some of the hardest photography and the most challenging photography I've ever done. It's a real challenge to work with the natural features and the natural light."
25
"More varied than any landscape was the landscape in the sky, with islands of gold and silver, peninsulas of apricot and rose against a background of many shades of turquoise and azure."
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"I always thought I was good. That's why it was so frustrating when other people didn't agree."
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"That's the new way - with computers, computers, computers. That's the way we can have the cell survive and get some new information in high resolution. We started about five years ago and, today, I think we have reached the target."
25
"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."
25
"Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion... the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate."
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"Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself."
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"When you grow up your mother says, 'Wear rubbers or you'll catch cold.' When you become an adult you discover that you have the right not to wear rubbers and to see if you catch cold or not. It's something like that."
25
"When we are angry or depressed in our creativity, we have misplaced our power. We have allowed someone else to determine our worth, and then we are angry at being undervalued."
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"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."
25
"Oftentimes we love the thing we hate and vice versa."
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"I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence."
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"In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv."
24
"People gave us everything for free. We were allowed only so much film per picture, but there was no limit to the creativity. I like to say that they let us loose like wild dogs in the streets of Paris."
24
"There must be a reason why photographers are not very good at verbal communication. I think we get lazy."
24
"If I am at a party, I want to be at the party. Too many photographers use the camera to avoid participating in things. They become professional observers."
24
"I had to go. A spirit in my feet said 'Go,' and I went."
24
"They were without clothes before I got there, and they were without clothes when I left."
24
"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?"
24
"Washington, D.C. in 1942 was not the easiest place in the world for a Negro to get along."
24
"Coming tight was boring to me, just the face... it didn't have enough information."
24
"Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes."
24
"It's hard to watch something go on and be talking at the same time."
24
"The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera."
24
"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."
24
"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."
24
"There are still so many places on our planet that remain unexplored. I'd love to one day peel back the mystery and understand them."
24
"I wish that all of nature's magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed."
24
"I am selfish, but that's an attribute that all artists possess."
24
"I think maybe the rural influence in my life helped me in a sense, of knowing how to get close to people and talk to them and get my work done."
23
"When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavored to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. The photograph thus taken has been almost the embodiment of a prayer."
23
"Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold."
23
"I try and play 2 or 3 times a week to stay on my game."
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