PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES III
quotations about photography
The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion.
RICHARD AVEDON
attributed, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance
The photograph is literally an emanation of the referent. From a real body, which was there, proceed radiations which ultimately touch me, who am here; the duration of the transmission is insignificant; the photograph of the missing being, as Sontag says, will touch me like the delayed rays of a star.
ROLAND BARTHES
Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
You put your camera around your neck in the morning, along with putting on your shoes, and there it is, an appendage of the body that shares your life with you.
DOROTHEA LANGE
Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life
The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget.
JOHN BERGER
About Looking
Photography, if practiced with high seriousness, is a contest between a photographer and the presumptions of approximate and habitual seeing. The contest can be held anywhere.
JOHN SZARKOWSKI
Looking at photographs: 100 pictures from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art
A photograph is a biography of a moment.
ART SHAY
interview, CBS News, February 13, 2014
I love things like Instagram and Pinterest. I get so many ideas just by getting a daily digest of images from great photographers who I follow on social media. What that also does is it tells me which pictures stand out to me, then I can analyse them and try and work out what it is about that particular image that had me mesmerised for longer than a glance.
GUY SEBASTIAN
"Guy Sebastian shares his photography tips", Sunshine Coast Daily, April 26, 2016
There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.
ANSEL ADAMS
attributed, Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age
To photograph ... is to put in the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.
HENRI-CARTIER-BRESSON
Pix, 1993
It is in these moments of stillness where I can really appreciate the little hidden surprises at every turn, the small details that often go unnoticed as we hurtle through our days. When you stop, take a deep breath, and find your sense of wonder, you surprise yourself with the beauty that lies in your frame.
GUY SEBASTIAN
"Guy Sebastian shares his photography tips", Sunshine Coast Daily, April 26, 2016
A photograph is a moral decision taken in one eighth of a second.
SALMAN RUSHDIE
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Photography suits the temper of this age -- of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately.
EDWARD WESTON
The Daybooks of Edward Weston
One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind. To live a visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable. I have only touched it, just touched it.
DOROTHEA LANGE
Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life
The photograph extends and multiplies the human image to the proportions of mass-produced merchandise. The movie stars and matinee idols are put in the public domain by photography. They become dreams that money can buy.
MARSHALL MCLUHAN
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
The camera is a perfect companion. It makes no demands, imposes no obligations. It becomes your notebook and your reference library, your microscope and your telescope. It sees what you are too lazy or too careless to notice, and it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.
AARON SISKIND
attributed, The Amateur Photographer's Handbook
What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce.
KARL LAGERFELD
attributed, Click You!
Photography is an art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
ELLIOTT ERWITT
attributed, "100 inspirational photography quotes", Shootzilla
After all, the decisive quality in a photographer is the faculty of seeing certain things and being tempted by them.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
"George Bernard Shaw on Coburn's Photography", British Journal of Photography, 1906
A great image is a great image, no matter who took it, where they live, and whether they were using a phone or the most expensive camera.
MIKE BETTS
"Community for Photography Photocrowd Seeks £450,000 Through Crowdcube", Crowd Fund Insider, April 28, 2016
The photograph has reversed the purpose of travel, which until now had been to encounter the strange and unfamiliar.... The world itself becomes a sort of museum of objects that have been encountered before in some other medium.
MARSHALL MCLUHAN
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man