Jay Maisel Quotes about Photography - Page 2

You always end up with too many pictures to edit and too few that you feel 'got it'.

Color really doesn't have interaction if it's full of colors. It's the interaction or relationship among or between colors that makes a color image. This usually happens with a few colors, not a glut of them.

There really isn't anything that you could call 'bad' color. It all has to do with the amount of color you use and in what context it appears.

Money and fame that photography can bring you are wonderful, but nothing can compare to the joy of seeing something new.

It's always around. You just don't see it.

I try not to tell students where to shoot, when to shoot, or what to shoot. I feel finding the picture is the most important part of being a photographer. The actual shooting is of lesser importance.

Gesture will survive whatever kind of light you have. Gesture can triumph over anything because of its narrative content.

Some have said that if you take a great picture in color and take away the color, you'll have a great black-and-white picture. But if you're shooting something about color and you take away the color, you'll have nothing.

Never say you're going back - SHOOT IT NOW!

You find that you have to do many things, more than just lift up the camera and shoot, and so you get involved in it in a very physical way. You may find that the picture you want to do can only be made from a certain place, and you're not there, so you have to physically go there. And that participation may spur you on to work harder on the thing, . . . because in the physical change of position you start seeing a whole different relationship.

If you're not shooting in the right direction, it doesn't matter how well you're shooting.

I'm a New Yorker. I don't believe in air unless I can see it.

If you can capture the element of surprise, you're way ahead of the game.

We have always wanted to find the 'it-ness' of anything we shoot. We want to get as deep into the subject as we can.

Allow yourself to lose your way.

Remember that most people (those who are not photographers) don't even see the things that you missed. Many don't even look. Ergo, you are way ahead of the game.

When finding the right angle for a shot...'Move your ass.'

Had I not been told to look, I would have quite, ignorant of what was really there, because I had 'made plans' and was wearing visual and emotional blinders that limited my perceptions and my vision.

It's a lot easier to take pictures if you always have the camera with you.

If you don't have a camera, the best thing you can do is describe how great it looked.

Never put lettering in your photos unless you want it read.

You have to learn not only from your failures. You must also learn from your successes.

It's not just when you shoot, or what you shot, or where you shoot, it's the combination of the three.

Sometimes as you work, you find that you are learning things about your own perceptions and motivations that are way below you consciousness. If you get lucky, you recognize what you are doing, but all too often we don't find the connection between our work and our own motivations.

You must be open to what otherwise may seem to be a detriment to your 'plans'.