Bill Brandt Quotes

• Photography is not a sport. It has no rules. Everything must be dared and tried!

  Bill Brandt

  Sports, Photography

  59 Copy quote

• I am not interested in rules or conventions. Photography is not a sport.

  Bill Brandt

  Sports, Photography, Conventions

  42 Copy quote

• It is part of the photographer's job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of a child who looks at the world for the first time or of the traveler who enters a strange country We are most of us too busy, too worried, too intent on proving ourselves right, too obsessed with ideas to stand and stare Very rarely are we able to free our minds of thoughts and emotions and just see for the simple pleasure of seeing. And so long as we fail to do this, so long will the essence of things be hidden from us.

  Bill Brandt

  Country, Jobs, Children

  23 Copy quote

• A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Giving, Atmosphere

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  33 Copy quote

• Photography has no rules, it is not a sport. It is the result which counts, no matter how it is achieved.

  Bill Brandt

  Sports, Photography, Matter

  28 Copy quote

• It is essential for the photographer to know the effect of his lenses. The lens is his eye, and it makes or ruins his pictures. A feeling for composition is a great asset. I think it is very much a matter of instinct. It can perhaps be developed, but I doubt if it can be learned. To achieve his best work, the young photographer must discover what really excites him visually. He must discover his own world.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Eye, Thinking

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  26 Copy quote

• The photographer must possess and preserve the receptive faculties of a child who looks at the world for the first time.

  Bill Brandt

  Children, Looks, World

  23 Copy quote

• And only the photographer himself knows the effect he wants. He should know by instinct, grounded in experience, what subjects are enhanced by hard or soft, light or dark treatment.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Dark, Light

  Bill Brandt (1948). “Camera in London”

  21 Copy quote

• Photography is still a very new medium and everything must be tried and dare.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Dare, Mediums

  "Do writers' photographs show a side of their character not revealed in their books?" by William Dalrymple, www.theguardian.com. May 14, 2016.

  20 Copy quote

• No amount of toying with shades of print or with printing papers will transform a commonplace photograph into anything other than a commonplace photograph.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Paper, Shade

  Bill Brandt (1948). “Camera in London”

  20 Copy quote

• Photographers should follow their own judgment, and not the fads and dictates of others.

  Bill Brandt

  Fads, Photographer, Judgment

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  9 Copy quote

• It is part of the photographer's job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time or of the traveler who enters a strange country.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Country, Jobs

  Bill Brandt (1948). “Camera in London”

  15 Copy quote

• When I began to photograph nudes, I let myself be guided by this camera, and instead of photographing what I saw, I photographed what the camera was seeing. I interfered very little, and the lens produced anatomical images and shapes which my eyes had never observed.

  Bill Brandt

  Beauty, Eye, Cameras

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  9 Copy quote

• If there is any method in the way I take pictures, I believe it lies in this: See the subject first. Do not try to force it to be a picture of this, that or the other thing. Stand apart from it. Then something will happen. The subject will reveal itself.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Lying, Believe

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  7 Copy quote

• I am not very interested in extraordinary angles. They can be effective on certain occasions, but I do not feel the necessity for them in my own work. Indeed, I feel the simplest approach can often be most effective. A subject placed squarely in the center of the frame, if attention is not distracted from it by fussy surroundings, has a simple dignity which makes it all the more impressive.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Simple, Often Is

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  9 Copy quote

• It is the gift of seeing the life around them clearly and vividly, as something that is exciting in its own right. It is an innate gift, varying in intensity with the individual's temperament and environment.

  Bill Brandt

  Photographer, Environment, Individual

  Bill Brandt (1948). “Camera in London”

  8 Copy quote

• A good nude photograph can be erotic, but certainly not sentimental or pornographic.

  Bill Brandt

  Erotic, Sentimental, Photograph

  11 Copy quote

• The good photographer will produce a competent picture every time whatever his subject. But only when his subject makes and immediate and direct appeal to his own interests will he produce a work of distinction.

  Bill Brandt

  Photographer, Produce, Distinction

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  9 Copy quote

• Sometimes they are a matter of luck; the photographer could not expect or hope for them. Sometimes they are a matter of patience, waiting for an effect to be repeated that he has seen and lost or for one that he anticipates.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Patience, Waiting

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  8 Copy quote

• Andre Breton once said that a portrait should not only be an image but an oracle one questions, and that the photographer's aim should be a profound likeness, which physically and morally predicts the subject's entire future.

  Bill Brandt

  Profound, Portraits, Oracles

  7 Copy quote

• I consider it essential that the photographer should do his own printing and enlarging. The final effect of the finished print depends so much on these operations.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Essentials, Finals

  Bill Brandt (1948). “Camera in London”

  14 Copy quote

• But I did not always know just what it was I wanted to photograph. I believe it is important for a photographer to discover this, for unless he finds what it is that excites him, what it is that calls forth at once an emotional response, he is unlikely to achieve his best work.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Believe, Emotional

  Bill Brandt (1948). “Camera in London”

  7 Copy quote

• Photographers should follow their own judgment, and not the fads and dictates of others. Photography is still a very new medium and everything is allowed and everything should be tried and dared... Photography has no rules. It is not a sport. It is the result which counts, no matter how it was achieved.

  Bill Brandt

  Sports, Photography, Fads

  7 Copy quote

• By temperament I am not unduly excitable and certainly not trigger-happy. I think twice before I shoot and very often do not shoot at all. By professional standards I do not waste a lot of film; but by the standards of many of my colleagues I probably miss quite a few of my opportunities. Still, the things I am after are not in a hurry as a rule.

  Bill Brandt

  Photography, Opportunity, Thinking

  Bill Brandt (1993). “Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography”, MacMillan Publishing Company

  7 Copy quote

• The vital elements are often momentary, change-sent things ... a gleam of light on water, a trail of smoke from a passing train, a cat crossing the threshold. Sometimes they are a matter of luck, sometimes of patience, waiting for an effect to be repeated that you have seen. It is usually some incidental detail that heightens the effect of a picture, stressing a pattern, deepening the sense of atmosphere.

  Bill Brandt

  Stress, Cat, Light

  4 Copy quote

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