58 Lines by 36 Photographers

I loves me some quotes, so I thought I’d gather up my favorites and share them. I tried to get to 88 lines, wanting to pay tribute to the ultimate 80’s cult band, the Nails (or the less classic “88 lines about 44 Simpsons“).

But when the dust settled I only came up with 58 that I thought were profound. Here they are in alphabetical order by author, except for my favorite which I saved for last. If you know some I missed post them:  we only need 30 more to get to 88.

• Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop – Ansel Adams
• You don’t take a photograph, you make it. – Ansel Adams
• There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer. –  Ansel Adams
• The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it. – Ansel Adams
• Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.  – Ansel Adams
• There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. — Ansel Adams
• There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. – Ansel Adams
• The term accessories has come to include a host of photographic gadgets of questionable value. – Ansel Adams
• Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field. – Peter Adams
• Everyone will take one great picture, I’ve done better because I’ve taken two. –  David Bailey
• A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you. – Brigitte Bardot
• Photograph: A picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. – Ambrose Bierce
• Results are uncertain even for the more experienced photographers. Matthew Brady
• Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
• Sharpness is a bourgeois concept. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
• If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough. – Robert Capa
• It’s not enough to have talent, you also have to be Hungarian. – Robert Capa
• Why is it called “after dark” when it really is “after light”? – George Carlin
• Photography is my one recreation and I think it should be done well. – Lewis Carroll
• Somebody just let the rabble in – Lewis Carroll – Upon the introduction of negatives and demise of colliodian plates.
• The Truth Is You have too many cameras and you don’t take enough photographs. – Kyle Cassidy
• I have seized the light. I have arrested its flight. – Louis Daguerre
• It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter. – Alfred Eisenstadt
• I expose longer. – Alfred Eisenstaedt, when asked what he did at night in Paris
• Pictures must not be too picturesque. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or Peru; if you cannot find it at your own door, you will never find it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• The camera cannot lie, but it can be an accessory to untruth.  – Harold Evans
• The hardest thing in photography is to create a simple image. – Anne Geddes
• Photography is truth. And cinema is truth twenty-four times a second. – Jean-Luc Godard
• I drifted into photography like one drifts into prostitution. First I did it to please myself, then I did it to please my friends, and eventually I did it for the money. – Philippe Halsman
• I am often asked which picture is my favorite. This is like asking a mother which child she likes the most. – Philippe Halsman
• If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.  – Lewis Hine
• While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph. – Lewis Hine
• It’s weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don’t even amount to a couple of hours.  – James Lalropui Keivom
• The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. – Dorthea Lange
• People say photographs don’t lie, mine do.” –David LaChapelle
• Unpredictability. Accidents. Not good when you’re engaging in, say, brain surgery, but when lighting…wonderful! –  Joe McNally
• A career in photography is a journey without a destination. – Joe McNally
• If you want something to look interesting, don’t light all of it. – Joe McNally
• I can’t tell you how many pictures I’ve missed just ‘cause I’ve been so hell bent on getting the shot I think I want. – Joe McNally
• Photgraphy is a literature of light. – Moses Oliver
• In black and white you suggest; in color you state. Much can be implied by suggestion, but statement demands certainty… absolute certainty. – Paul Outerbridge
• There is no better time to crop a bad composition than just before you press the shutter release. – Bryan Peterson
• If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff. – Jim Richardson
• The two most engaging powers of a photographer are to make new things familiar and familiar things new. – William Thackeray
• The question is not what you look at but what you see! – Henry David Thoureau
• You cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus – Mark Twain
• Anything more than 500 yds from the car just isn’t photogenic. – Brett Weston
• Consulting the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. – Edward Weston
• If I saw something in my viewfinder that looked familiar to me, I would do something to shake it up. – Garry Winogrand
• You see something happening and you bang away at it. Either you get what you saw or you get something else–and whichever is better you print. – Garry Winogrand
• I just got this new camera. It’s so advanced you don’t even need it. – Stephen Wright
• Everyone has a photographic memory, but not everyone has film.  – Author Unknown
• If you saw a man drowning and you could either save him or photograph the event…what kind of film would you use? – Anonymous
• How many photographers does it take to change a light bulb? 50. One to change the bulb, and forty-nine to say, “I could have done that!” – Anonymous
• The quickest way to make money at photography is to sell your camera. – Anonymous
• Amateurs worry about equipment, Professionals worry about time, Masters worry about light. –  Anonymous

1. Long ago . . . it must be . . . I have a photograph.  Preserve your memories;  They’re all that’s left you. — Paul Simon

Roger Cicala

Lensrentals.com

August, 2011

Author: Roger Cicala

I’m Roger and I am the founder of Lensrentals.com. Hailed as one of the optic nerds here, I enjoy shooting collimated light through 30X microscope objectives in my spare time. When I do take real pictures I like using something different: a Medium format, or Pentax K1, or a Sony RX1R.