One does not photograph something simply for 'what it is', but 'for what else it is.
All photographs are self-portraits.
One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.
When you approach something to photograph it, first be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence. Then don't leave until you have captured its essence.
No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen.
When gifts are given to me through my camera, I accept them graciously.
Photography is a language more universal than words.
I'm always mentally photographing everything as practice.
At first glance a photograph can inform us. At second glance it can reach us.
If all your life means to you is water running over rocks, then photograph it, but I want to create something that would not have existed without me.
The camera is first a means of self-discovery and a means of self-growth. The artist has one thing to say - himself.
Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence.
Let the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera.
...innocence of eye has a quality of its own. It means to see as a child sees, with freshness and acknowledgment of the wonder; it also means to see as an adult sees who has gone full circle and once again sees as a child - with freshness and an even deeper sense of wonder.
Reaching a 'creative' state of mind thru positive action is considered preferable to waiting for 'inspiration'.
Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts.
...insight, vision, moments of revelation. During those rare moments something overtakes the man and he becomes the tool of a greater Force; the servant of, willing or unwilling depending on his degree of awakeness. The photograph, then, is a message more than a mirror, and the mans a messenger who happens to be a photographer.
When I look at pictures I have made, I have forgotten what I saw in front of the camera and respond only to what I am seeing in the photographs.
There's no particular class of photograph that I think is any better than any other class. I'm always and forever looking for the image that has spirit! I don't give a damn how it got made.
Watching the way the current moves a blade of grass - sometimes I've seen that happen and it has just turned me inside out.
While we cannot describe its appearance (the equivalent), we can define its function. When a photograph functions as an Equivalent we can say that at that moment, and for that person the photograph acts as a symbol or plays the role of a metaphor for something that is beyond the subject photographed.
Sometimes we work so fast that we don't really understand what's going on in front of the camera. We just kind of sense that, 'Oh my God, it's significant!' and photograph impulsively while trying to get the exposure right. Exposure occupies my mind while intuition frames the images.
Camera and eye are together a time machine with which the mind and human being can do the same kind of violence to time and space as dreams.
If I have anything to give you through camera, it must be of myself. … A gnawing burns inside … to make something of myself worth giving.
I have often photographed when I am not in tune with nature but the photographs look as if I had been. So I conclude that something in nature says, 'Come and take my photograph.' So I do, regardless of how I feel.
