quotes

People will never accept digital photography! Film conveys a warmth and emotion that digital cannot.”
George Eastman

Forget the camera, forget the lens, forget all of that. With any four-dollar camera you can capture the best picture.”
Alberto Korda

“Whoever does not understand with a glance will not understand with a great explanation either.”
Unknown Brazilian Poet

“… people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Albert Einstein

“Sometimes you have to be able to listen to yourself and be okay with no one else understanding.”
Christopher Barzak

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau

“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”
Ansel Adams

“Those who do original work in any field do so because they mine themselves deeply and bring up what is personal.”
Ralph Steiner

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
Ayn Rand

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”
Jonathan Swift

“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there is no favorable wind.”
Seneca

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside awakens.”
Carl Jung

“A camera merely records, but an artist creates.”
Chuck Kimmerle

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

“You can’t depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus.”
Mark Twain

“The same sun shines upon the same earth, yet each of us casts a different shadow.”
W. E. Dassonville

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
Herman Melville

“It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”
Helen Keller

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”
Ansel Adams

“While 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.”
Dorothea Lange

“When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes.”
Anonymous

“If you set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you will achieve nothing.”
Margaret Thatcher

“I should be able to look down at my feet and see something to photograph.”
Edward Weston

“The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don’t know what to do with it.”
Edward Weston

“When money enters in, then, for a price, I become a liar, and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all…”
Edward Weston

“When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches.”
Edward Weston

“Black and White speaks to me in a way that I cannot put into words.”
Anonymous

“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”
Elliott Erwitt

“Art is made by the alone for the alone.”
Luis Barragan

“I really didn’t have much to teach. I didn’t even believe in it. I felt so strongly that everybody had to find their own way. And nobody can teach you your own way…. in terms of art, the only real answer that I know of is to do it. If you don’t’ do it you don’t know what might happen.”
Harry Callahan

“Can photography be taught? If this mean the history and techniques of the medium, I think it can….. If, however, teaching photography means bringing students to find their own individual photographic visions, I think it is impossible.”
Robert Adams

“I knew I didn’t want to study at length contemporaries’ pictures, fearing that their work might come close to mine and blur my vision.”
Robert Adams

“Colefucious say: they who walk in another’s footsteps, never finds their own path.”
Cole Thompson

“The only thing critics do is psychoanalyze themselves.”
Edward Weston

“The so-called rules of photographic composition are, in my opinion, invalid, irrelevant, immaterial.”
Ansel Adams

“What anyone else thinks about your art is none of your business.”
Cole Thompson

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
Ansel Adams

“All photographs are accurate, none of them is the truth.”
Richard Avedon

“A photograph does not tell ‘the’ truth, it tells ‘a’ truth.”
Cole Thompson

“All photographs are self-portraits.”
Minor White

“I am not interested in seeing new things, I am interested in seeing things new.”
Ernst Haas

“A photographer went to a socialite party in New York. As he entered the front door, the host said ‘I love your pictures – they’re wonderful; you must have a fantastic camera.’ He said nothing until dinner was finished, then: ‘That was a wonderful dinner; you must have a terrific Stove.”
Sam Haskins

“Cole’s Rule of Thirds: A great image is comprised of 1/3 vision, 1/3 the shot and 1/3 processing. But everything begins with Vision, which drives the shot and the processing.”
Cole Thompson

“Color attracts my eye, but black and white holds my attention.”
Cole Thompson

“Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn’t photogenic.”
Edward Weston

“Color records the image, but black and white records the feelings that lie beneath the surface.”
Cole Thompson

“Vision is simply the sum of our life experiences, that allows us to see the world in a unique way.”
Cole Thompson

“Vision is not learned or developed. But rather Vision is discovered and followed.”
Cole Thompson

“Why is Vision so important? Because it’s the difference between an average image and a great image.”
Cole Thompson

“Some people believe you need great technical skills before you can express your Vision. I disagree. I think you should first find your Vision and then learn the skills needed to express that Vision.”
Cole Thompson

“How important is equipment when creating an image? Not nearly as important as we think. Not nearly as important as your Vision.”
Cole Thompson

“How do I pick a subject? I don’t, it picks me.”
Cole Thompson

“What photographic rules should you follow? None, unless you want to create average images.”
Cole Thompson

“I believe that the rules of composition are harmful because they keep you from seeking, finding and using your Vision.”
Cole Thompson

“Technical perfection without Vision will result in a technically perfect but soulless image.”
Cole Thompson

“A great image is found at the intersection of Vision and Passion.”
Cole Thompson

“What’s the easiest way to make money from your fine art photography? Sell your equipment.”
Unknown