Great Photography Quotes

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

Ansel Adams

Inspirational, Photography, Art

33 Copy quote
I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse.

Diane Arbus

Inspirational, Photography, Taken

28 Copy quote
It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.

David Bailey

Photography, Art, Learning

87 Copy quote
It's one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it's another thing to make a portrait of who they are.

Paul Caponigro

Inspirational, Photography, Portraits

52 Copy quote
If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough.

Robert Capa

Photography, Photographer, Good Enough

Robert Capa (1987). “Robert Capa: cuadernos de guerra en España (1936-1939).”

74 Copy quote

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To photograph is to hold one's breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It's at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Photography, Reality, Joy

48 Copy quote
In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Photography, Details, Littles

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Michael L. Sand (1999). “The Mind's Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers”

78 Copy quote

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The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.

Andy Warhol

Inspirational, Photography, I Hate You

97 Copy quote
Never boss people around. It's more important to click with people than to click the shutter.

Alfred Eisenstaedt

Photography, People, Boss

13 Copy quote
To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.

Elliott Erwitt

Inspirational, Inspiring, Photography

"You Might Be a Cowgirl If . . .: A Guide to Life on the Range" by Jill Charlotte Stanford, Robin L. Corey, Globe Pequot, (p. 111), September 4, 2012.

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If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera.

Lewis Hine

Inspirational, Photography, Insightful

Lewis Wickes Hine, Daile Kaplan (1992). “Photo story: selected letters and photographs of Lewis W. Hine”, Smithsonian Inst Pr

68 Copy quote

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I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.

Diane Arbus

Inspirational, Photography, Believe

59 Copy quote
Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.

Diane Arbus

Life, Motivational, Softball

96 Copy quote
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.

Diane Arbus

Inspirational, Photography, Philosophical

66 Copy quote
When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

Ansel Adams

Inspirational, Photography, Creativity

Attributed in "AB bookman's weekly: for the specialist book world", Vol. 76, Nr. 19-27; (p. 3326), 1985.

48 Copy quote

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There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

Ansel Adams

Inspirational, Photography, Creativity

Interview with David Sheff, davidsheff.com. March 1983.

29 Copy quote

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There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

Ansel Adams

Photography, Cameras, Photographer

Attributed in "The Everything Digital Photography Book" by E.T. Schoch, (p. 105), 2002.

48 Copy quote

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Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow.

Imogen Cunningham

Inspirational, Photography, Art

95 Copy quote
A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

Ansel Adams

Photography, Photographer, Feels

15 Copy quote
Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.

Aaron Siskind

Inspirational, Inspiring, Photography

61 Copy quote
Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.

Ansel Adams

Photography, Cameras, Photographer

Eric Peter Nash, Ansel Adams (1995). “Ansel Adams: The Spirit of Wild Places”, Todtri Book Pub

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A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.

Ansel Adams

Photography, Needs, Photographer

Ansel Adams, Nancy Wynne Newhall, M.H. De Young Memorial Museum (1963*). “Ansel Adams, photographs 1923-1963”

62 Copy quote

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Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

Ansel Adams

Photography, Years, Twelve

"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

20 Copy quote

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Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.

Ansel Adams

Photography, Mistake, Care

15 Copy quote
No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.

Robert Adams

Inspirational, Good Night, Photography

Robert Adams, Richard B. Woodward (2006). “Along some rivers: photographs and conversations”

19 Copy quote

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