Photography Quotes - Page 82

I am interested in marginality, in immaturity, in naïveté, in illusion, in fictions, in transitions, in the fact that at a certain moment in life there is no limit. I would like my photography to pose a question rather than make a precise statement.

I want pictures like these. The kind that can capture a moment, make it real, make it last. I need pictures that do more than reflect. I need pictures that are truth.

While photography to Cartier-Bresson is constantly an intuitive process, it is never purely instinctive. It is founded on continuous intellection, on ceaseless consideration during all moments previous to, or preparatory for, the pressing. It does not only operate in the blinding flash of a moment seized; it works all the time. The snatched picture merely cuts across the vein of observable incident or accident which is always beating, whether or not the fingers actually press.

I've enjoyed photography, ever since I was a teenager, and I'm still at it. I've had shows in various cities, around the country, and I have a number of pieces in permanent collections in museums that I'm very proud of.

With a camera like that you don't believe you're in the masterpiece business. It's enough to be able to peck at the world.

I never considered myself a good photographer. I still don't. I thought of myself as a hard worker. My camera was a sponge and I had an instinct that athletes have - anticipation. Photography really represents an enormous amount of anticipation - understanding what might be there the next moment and being prepared for it.

I believe photography is about choosing to live, being brave. Looking is an act of courage. It's terrifying. It's possible to see too much, to witness things that we cannot hold.

Poetry is my first love. Photography often fails to look into things. It looks at things. Poetry is so much more truthful.

Literature especially has an interesting relationship to photography - to observation, to description, to fiction: taking something that you see and elaborating, jamming, and I think, staging.... taking that moment of observation and letting it go, giving it some wings, following it, rather than nailing it. You're riffing off of reality.

I love the history of photography and one process has always replaced another. However, very, very few have disappeared.

I don't know if I can articulate how I feel. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would make it here.

At a fundamental level photography is much like pointing, and all of us occasionally point at things: look at that, look at that sailboat, look at that tree, etc. etc.

I have always been fascinated by the life cycle, the way skin metamorphoses over time. I am mesmerized by skin and that's why I've been attracted to the nude. I do think people show their soul when they are stripped down psychically. There is something wondrous that happens when we relate on that level - and I am interested in that depth.

Our best pictures happen by grace.

Pictures you have taken have an influence on those that you are going to make. That's life!

Ideally I would like the work to be a hybrid between painting and photography.

The most striking feature of the new is the sheer mass. Photography was previously a mass phenomenon, but now, quantity is doubtless the outstanding quality. For a long time photos have been taken frequently and everywhere, but now photos are taken permanently and everywhere,... What is new is that we can watch them practically in real time.

And young people who are learning digital skills discover that the real challenge is coming up with an image that resonates, first of all, with your self and hopefully, with an audience. They can learn all these new techniques and think that they're easier to use, but creating great images isn't about the tools.

Photography could have been invented in color. Colors existed.

Always wait for the trigger. The trigger is the final part of the puzzle, the reason you want to shoot.

You must not think of yourself as looking at the stage from the audience. You must think of it as theatre in the round and look at it from all sides.

You need minimum color for maximum effect.

As people, we love pattern. But interrupted pattern is more interesting.

What you're shooting at doesn't matter, the real question is: 'Does it give you joy?'

A picture was a motionless record of motion. An arrested representation of life. A picture was the kiss of death pretending to possess immutability.