You know what a camera is? A mirror with memory.
—Unknown
The world is going to pieces and people like Adams and Weston are photographing rocks!
—Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French Photographer, Journalist
They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.
—Tallulah Bankhead (1902–68) American Actress
Saturate yourself with your subject and the camera will all but take you by the hand.
—Margaret Bourke-White (1904–71) American Photographer, Journalist
The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
It is not altogether wrong to say that there is no such thing as a bad photograph—only less interesting, less relevant, less mysterious ones.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
The departure of our boys to foreign parts with the ever-present possibility that they might never return, taught the real value of photography to every father and mother. To many a mother the photograph of her boy in his country’s uniform was the one never-failing consolation.
—Louis Fabian Bachrach Jr. (1917–2010) American Photographer
Buying a Nikon doesn’t make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner.
—Unknown
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 (1928–2023) French-born American Advertising, Documentary Photographer
The camera can represent flesh so superbly that, if I dared, I would never photograph a figure without asking that figure to take its clothes off.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I take photographs with love, so I try to make them art objects. But I make them for myself first and foremost—that is important.
—Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894–1986) French Candid Photographer
You can find pictures anywhere. It’s simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.
—Elliott Erwitt (1928–2023) French-born American Advertising, Documentary Photographer
People think that all cameramen do is point the camera at things, but it’s a heck of a lot more complicated than that.
—Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) American Christian Leader, Humanitarian, Writer
The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true.
—Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894–1986) French Candid Photographer
You don’t take a photograph, you make it.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
Photography is my one recreation and I think it should be done well.
—Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) (1832–98) British Author, Mathematician, Clergyman, Logician
As I progressed further with my project, it became obvious that it was really unimportant where I chose to photograph. The particular place simply provided an excuse to produce work… you can only see what you are ready to see – what mirrors your mind at that particular time.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The meaning of quality in photography’s best pictures lies written in the language of vision. That language is learned by chance, not system.
—Walker Evans (1903–75) American Photojournalist Known for Depression-era Work
If you’re photographing in color you show the color of their clothes – if you use black and white, you will show the color of their soul.
—Indian Proverb
Objects in pictures should so be arranged as by their very position to tell their own story.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.
—Diane Arbus (1923–71) American Photographer, Writer
The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer.
—Unknown
A photograph is a most important document, and there is nothing more damning to go down to posterity than a silly, foolish smile caught and fixed forever.
—George A. Tice (1938–2025) American Photographer Known for New Jersey Landscapes
the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads—as an anthology of images.
—Rick Steves (b.1955) American Travel Writer, Entrepreneur, Activist
The Equipment you’ll leave at home, you’ll need the most. You’re always out of film when you’ll have the best opportunity.
—Unknown
A good picture is equivalent to a good deed.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
A good photograph is knowing where to stand.
—Ansel Adams (1902–84) American Photographer
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