Photography - Quotes

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed. - Ansel Adams

A photograph acquires something of the dignity which it ordinarily lacks when it ceases to be a reproduction of reality and shows us things that no longer exist. - Marcel Proust

A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into. - Ansel Adams

A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in us, how would we ever recognize it? - Ernst Haas

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

Both the grand and the intimate aspects of nature can be revealed in the expressive photograph. Both can stir enduring affirmations and discoveries, and can surely help the spectator in his search for identification with the vast world of natural beauty and the wonder surrounding him. - Ansel Adams

Composition in photography is almost as varied as composition in music or words – melodic or atonal, safe or daring – and can enhance subject, theme, and style. Every photograph you take involves you in some compositional decision, even if this is simply where to set up the camera or when to press the button. - Michael Langford

I am probably afraid that some spectator will not understand my photography - therefore I proceed to make it really less understandable by writing defensibly about it. - Ansel Adams

I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything. - John Steinbeck

I know some photographs that are extraordinary in their power and conviction, but it is difficult in photography to overcome the superficial power or subject; the concept and statement must be quite convincing in themselves to win over a dramatic and compelling subject situation. - Ansel Adams

I take a picture, but it’s not about who is in the picture or the background of it. It’s about the memories and meanings it holds. - Kayla Davis

In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular . . . sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice. - Ansel Adams

Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure. - Tony Benn

Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs. - Ansel Adam

Photography is a powerful medium of persuasion and propaganda. It has that ring of truth when all the time, in artful hands, it can make any statement the manipulator chooses. - Michael Langford

Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution. - Ansel Adams

Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art. - Ansel Adams

Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself. - Berenice Abbott

Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past. - Berenice Abbott 

Photography has the capacity to provide images of man and his environment that are both works of art and moments in history. - Cornell Capa

Photography helps people to see. - Berenice Abbott

Photography not only captures what we see. It also captures the feeling s of the moment, which is what I like most. - Jayanta Roy

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 takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still. - Dorothea Lange

Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution. - Ansel Adams

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

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

To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things. - Ansel Adams

We must remember that a photograph can hold just as much as we put into it, and no one has ever approached the full possibilities of the medium. - Ansel Adams

We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone. - Katie Thurmes

What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce. - Karl Lagerfeld

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. - Ansel Adams

With photography a new language has been created. Now for the first time it is possible to express reality by reality. We can look at an impression as long as we wish, we can delve into it and, so to speak, renew past experiences at will. - Ernst Haas