Great Photography Quotes

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.

Eudora Welty

Photography, Running, Snapshots

Eudora Welty (1998). “Stories, Essays, and Memoir”

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Beauty can be seen in all things.

Matt Hardy

Photography, Portraits, Photographer

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Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Photography, Earth, Vanishing

36 Copy quote
The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!

Ansel Adams

Photography, Important, Cameras

63 Copy quote
When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.

Robert Frank

Photography, People, Looks

Sarah Greenough, Robert Frank, Philip Brookman, National Gallery of Art (U.S.) (1994). “Robert Frank”, Natl Gallery of Art

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The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

Dorothea Lange

Inspirational, Photography, Creativity

Dorothea Lange, Robert Coles (1982). “Photographs of a Lifetime”

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Above all, I know that life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference.

Robert Frank

Photography, Matter, Photographer

"New York to Nova Scotia".

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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.

Robert Frank

Photography, Two, Humanity

"Photographers on photography: a critical anthology". Book by Nathan Lyons, p. 66, 1966.

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There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.

Ernst Haas

Photography, Creativity, Light

35 Copy quote
Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.

Yousuf Karsh

Inspirational, Photography, Heart

96 Copy quote
Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

Dorothea Lange

Inspirational, Life, Change

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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

Life, Photography, Eye

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In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.

Alfred Stieglitz

Inspirational, Inspiring, Photography

Alfred Stieglitz, J. Paul Getty Museum (1995). “Alfred Stieglitz: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum”, p.82, Getty Publications

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Photography is a major force in explaining man to man.

Edward Steichen

Photography, Men, Records

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Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.

Edward Steichen

Photography, Men, Sky

"To Catch the Instant", Time Magazine, April 7, 1961.

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Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask 'how', while others of a more curious nature will ask 'why'. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.

Man Ray

Photography, Inspiration, Technique

"Photographers on Photography : A Critical Anthology". Book by Nathan Lyons (p. 80), 1966.

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A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.

Edward Steichen

Inspirational, Photography, Cameras

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Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.

Matt Hardy

Inspirational, Photography, Portraits

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My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.

Steve McCurry

Inspirational, Photography, Insightful

"Steve McCurry’s Photographs Of His Travels Will Give You The Chills" by Rebecca Shapiro, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 24, 2015.

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Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving.

Aaron Siskind

Photography, Touching, Feelings

67 Copy quote
Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.

Man Ray

Photography, Inspiration, Information

"Photographers on Photography: A Critical Anthology". Book by Nathan Lyons, p. 80, 1966.

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Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner.

Arthur Ashe

Softball, Confidence, Winning

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One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.

Dorothea Lange

Photography, Reality, Cameras

Anne Whiston Spirn, Dorothea Lange (2009). “Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange's Photographs and Reports from the Field”, University Of Chicago Press

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Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times...I just shoot at what interests me at that moment.

Elliott Erwitt

Photography, Home, Cameras

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A lot of photographers think that if they buy a better camera they'll be able to take better photographs. A better camera won't do a thing for you if you don't have anything in your head or in your heart.

Arnold Newman

Photography, Heart, Thinking

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