If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, then why aren’t all photographers silent? We all have something to say. Here are photography quotes that will hopefully motivate and inspire you.
- “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange
- “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” – Ansel Adams
- “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
- The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much. – Annie Leibovitz
- “I picked up a camera because it was my choice of weapons against what I hated most about the universe: racism, intolerance, poverty.” – Gordon Parks
- “A picture is a poem without words.” – Horace
- I don’t really think that the technique really determines the veracity of the image. It’s what the image does to the viewer that determines whether it’s right or wrong. – Roy DeCarava
- “Someone said to me once, ‘No wonder he creates great images, he has the best camera and lenses money can buy’ and I replied, ‘Not once has my camera gone out on its own and made great images’.” – Onne van der Wal
- “I think of myself as a writer who photographs. Images, for me, can be considered poems, short stories or essays. And I’ve always thought the best place for my photographs was inside books of my own creation.” – Sam Abell
- “Never say you’re going back – SHOOT IT NOW!” – Jay Maisel
- “Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.” – Ambrose Bierce
- “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” – Elliott Erwitt
- “If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” – Jim Richardson
- “The drama of light exists not only in what is in the light, but also in what is left dark. If the light is everywhere, the drama is gone.” – Jay Maisel
- “What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.” – Karl Lagerfeld
- “If the light is great in front of you, you should turn around and see what it is doing behind you.” – Jay Maisel
- “When I photograph, what I’m really doing is seeking answers to things.” – Wynn Bullock
- “Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.” – Imogen Cunningham
- “The greatest moments in photography you will experience, as in life, are directly proportional to the level of commitment you’ve made and the amount of risk you’ve taken to make them happen.” – Jimmy Chin
- “Only photograph what you love.” – Tim Walker
- “It’s a hard job to get the camera to see it like you see it. Sometimes you have it just the way you want it, and then you look in the camera and you don’t have the balance. The main thing is to get the camera to see it the way you see it.” – James Van Der Zee
- “Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
- “You have a lifetime to learn technique. But I can teach you what is more important than technique, how to see; learn that and all you have to do afterwards is press the shutter.” – Garry Winogrand
- “There were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it.” – Roy DeCarava
- “The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality.” – Scott Lorenzo
- “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” – Diane Arbus
- “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” – Robert Frank
- “As photographers we have the innate ability to change someone’s perception of themselves with one click of the shutter.” – Peter Hurley
- “I feel it is the heart, not the eye, that should determine the content of the photograph. What the eye sees is its own. What the heart can perceive is a very different matter.” – Gordon Parks
- “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” – Ansel Adams
- “Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.” – Don McCullin
- “It is no accident that the photographer becomes a photographer any more than the lion tamer becomes a lion tamer.” – Dorothea Lange
- “The more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.” – Robert Mapplethorpe
- “Photography is the beauty of life captured.” – Tara Chisolm
- “When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes.” – Anonymous
- “I think of photography like therapy” – Harry Gruyaert
- “One doesn’t stop seeing. One doesn’t stop framing. It doesn’t turn off and turn on. It’s on all the time.” – Annie Leibovitz
- “I never have taken a picture I’ve intended. They’re always better or worse.” – Diane Arbus
- “Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important and capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out, just take another shot.” – Unknown
- “It’s not enough to just own a camera. Everyone owns a camera. To be a photographer, you must understand, appreciate, and harness the power you hold!” – Mark Denman
- “The biggest cliche in photography is sunrise and sunset.” – Catherine Opie
- “Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” – George Eastman
- “Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work.” – Martin Parr
- “Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.” – Garry Winogrand
- “Photography is an itch that won’t go away. No matter how much you scratch it.” – Dara McGrath
- “No matter how sophisticated the camera, the photographer is still the one that makes it.” – Doug Bartlow
- “A camera is like a magic carpet. It can take you around the world and bring you back home with wonderful memories. It’s up to you to make the magic happen” – Rick Sammon
- You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at the picture for a second and think of it all your life.” – Joan Miro
- “Embrace technology and master technique. They are the essential tools for expressing your creative vision through photography!” – George Lepp
If any of these photography quotes resonated with you, I’d love to know which ones. So, leave me a comment. Several of them have had an impact on me.