I think a photography class should be a requirement in all educational programs because it makes you see the world rather than just look at it.
—Indian Proverb
Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything.
—John Steinbeck (1902–68) American Novelist, Short Story Writer, Journalist
If I had no sense of humor, I should long ago have committed suicide.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.
—Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American Novelist Essayist
A photograph is a portrait painted by the sun.
—Indian Proverb
A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
When photography was invented it was thought to be an equivalent to truth, it was truth with a capital “T”.
—Vicki Goldberg (1936–2025) American Art Critic
I always thought of photography as a naughty thing to do—that was one of my favorite things about it, and when I first did it, I felt very perverse.
—Diane Arbus (1923–71) American Photographer, Writer
Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
—Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) American Documentary Photographer
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 (1895–1965) American Documentary Photographer
The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer.
—Unknown
When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.
—Annie Leibovitz (b.1949) American Photographer
Pictures you have taken have an influence on those that you are going to make. That’s life!
—John Sexton (b.1953) American Fine Art Photographer
The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.
—Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French Photographer, Journalist
A photograph never grows old. You and I change, people change all through the months and years, but a photograph always remains the same. How nice to look at a photograph of mother or father taken many years ago. You see them as you remember them. But as people live on, they change completely. That is why I think a photograph can be kind.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.
—Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American Short Story Writer, Novelist
To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.
—Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French Photographer, Journalist
Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. During the work, you have to be sure that you haven’t left any holes, that you’ve captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late.
—Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French Photographer, Journalist
A picture is worth a thousand words; a slide show is both.
—Indian Proverb
Simply look with perceptive eyes at the world about you, and trust to your own reactions and convictions. Ask yourself: “Does this subject move me to feel, think and dream? Can I visualize a print – my own personal statement of what I feel and want to convey – from the subject before me?
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
Actually, I’m not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the picture is in the box, I’m not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren’t cooks.
—Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French Photographer, Journalist
To take photographs is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in the face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.
—Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French Photographer, Journalist
There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
Photograph is a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. It is a little better than the work of an Apache, but not quite so good as that of a Cheyenne.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
A photograph is usually looked at—seldom looked into.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
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