Welcome to Quotes by Photographers, a curated collection of insightful and inspiring quotes from some of the most renowned photographers in the world. Photography is not just about capturing moments through a lens; it is an art form that allows us to tell stories, evoke emotions, and freeze time in a single frame. Photographers, with their unique perspectives and profound experiences, often share their wisdom and thoughts about the craft they love. Whether you’re an aspiring photographer seeking guidance or simply looking for some creative inspiration, this page is a treasure trove of wisdom from the masters of the visual medium.
Below, you’ll find a selection of quotes that delve into the heart of photography, offering valuable insights, technical tips, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be a photographer. These quotes are not just meant to be read; they are a source of inspiration and empowerment for photographers of all levels. Feel free to copy them, overlay them onto your images, or use stylish fonts to enhance their visual appeal. Let the words of these photography legends ignite your creativity and passion for this timeless art form. Enjoy the journey!
The thing about tourism is that the reality of a place is quite different from the mythology of it. Martin Parr
Maybe black and white is the best medium for landscapes, I don’t know. Fay Godwin
An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human. Man Ray
Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product. Edward Steichen
Camera lies all the time. It’s all it does is lie, because when you choose this moment instead of this moment, when you… the moment you’ve made a choice, you’re lying about something larger. ‘Lying’ is an ugly word. I don’t mean lying. But any artist picks and chooses what they want to paint or write about or say. Photographers are the same. Richard Avedon
If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough. Robert Capa
I emerged in that incredible moment in the 1980s when all kinds of social questions about subjectivity and objectivity, about who was making, who was looking. Carrie Mae Weems
I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed. Annie Leibovitz
It’s that I don’t like white paper backgrounds. A woman does not live in front of white paper. She lives on the street, in a motor car, in a hotel room. Helmut Newton
I am not interested in shooting new things – I am interested to see things new. Ernst Haas
Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness. Yousuf Karsh
No place is boring, if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film. Robert Adams
Nothing seemed more important to me than to make the world aware of the senseless death and starvation in South Sudan. I wanted people to see through the eyes of the suffering so my photos might motivate the international community to act. Lynsey Addario
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. Cecil Beaton
Well, I turn people into human beings by not making them into gods. Imogen Cunningham
I’m looking for the unexpected. I’m looking for things I’ve never seen before. Robert Mapplethorpe
Although humans see reality in colour, for me, black and white has always been connected to the image’s deeper truth, to its most hidden meaning. Peter Lindbergh
Essentially what photography is is life lit up. Sam Abell
There is this looking at the world as shapes and patterns and colors that have meaning, and you can’t deny the superficial because the superficial is what meets the eye. Wolfgang Tillmans
The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep. Paul Strand
No one is an environmentalist by birth. It is only your path, your life, your travels that awaken you. Yann Arthus-Bertrand
I had daydreams and fantasies when I was growing up. I always wanted to live in a log cabin at the foot of a mountain. I would ride my horse to town and pick up provisions. Then return to the cabin, with a big open fire, a record player and peace. Linda McCartney
Interviewing someone is a very proactive process and requires taking a lot of agency into your own hands to get past people’s general normal self-preservation mode. Brandon Stanton
I never read about photography. Sally Mann
A lot of people think that when you have grand scenery, such as you have in Yosemite, that photography must be easy. Galen Rowell
I’m most interested in finding the strangeness and irony in reality. That’s my forte. Mary Ellen Mark
Success to me is being a good person, treating people well. David LaChapelle
Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is the one they would like to show to the world… Every so often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe. Irving Penn
Photography is like a moment, an instant. You need a half-second to get the photo. So it’s good to capture people when they are themselves. Patrick Demarchelier
You don’t take a photograph, you make it. Ansel Adams
The goal of art was the vital expression of self. Alfred Stieglitz
What do you hang on the walls of your mind? Eve Arnold
The beauty of the past belongs to the past. Margaret Bourke-White
Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts. Walker Evans
Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. Robert Frank
Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation. Henri Cartier-Bresson
I’m really just using the mirror to summon something I don’t even know until I see it. Cindy Sherman
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
A positive attitude can really make dreams come true – it did for me. David Bailey
My father is an architect, so I often think like a designer or an architect. I remember when I was admiring buildings, I would look up at them and see this perspective and this awesome power of the monument in front of me. Platon
Biodiversity starts in the distant past and it points toward the future. Frans Lanting
Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors. W. Eugene Smith
My favourite words are possibilities, opportunities and curiosity. I think if you are curious, you create opportunities, and then if you open the doors, you create possibilities. Mario Testino
Only photograph what you love. Tim Walker
There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described. I photograph to see what something will look like photographed. Garry Winogrand
The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer. Gordon Parks
I look at ordinary objects, and I see things that other people don’t see. That’s why I’m a photographer. Ruth Bernhard
Trust that little voice in your head that says ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if…’; And then do it. Duane Michals
It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter. Alfred Eisenstaedt
I had no real respect for good technique because I didn’t know what it was. I was self-taught, so that stuff didn’t matter to me. William Klein
I have a Mercedes. I wear a Rolex watch. I have no problem with the selling of things. Juergen Teller
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know. Diane Arbus
Everything must work in concert. Composition is important, but so are many other things, from content to the way colours work with or against each other. William Eggleston
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
Growth is a spiral process, doubling back on itself, reassessing and regrouping. Julia Margaret Cameron
Freedom is… not to be bound by my wounds. And to be able to eat cake every day. Amanda de Cadenet
Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past. Berenice Abbott
Every time there’s a new tool, whether it’s Internet or cell phones or anything else, all these things can be used for good or evil. Technology is neutral; it depends on how it’s used. Rick Smolan
Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual. Edward Weston
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
