Bright Ideas
Recently a friend suggested that I start writing some of my own favourite sayings. So here are a few of my quotes!
When critiquing workshop participants photos “Why did you take that picture?”
“You can ask a dozen photographers their opinions about camera equipment and you will get a 1000 different answers.”
“Q: Are you using Mac or PC? A: It doesn’t matter, you will get the same results!” (You can interchange Nikon and Canon here too)
“I just have one more shot to take” or “Just one more shot”
“Of all of the 10,000’s of times that my photos have been published over the years, the only time that I have been asked which camera I used to take a picture was from a camera manufacturer who wanted to buy that shot.”
Do you have any quotes that you’d like to add?
Thanks for posting, here are a couple that I like from other photographers.
“Unless you photograph what you love, you’re not going to make good art.” – Sally Mann
“Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.” – Susan Sontag
“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” – Ansel Adams
“I like photographs which leave something to the imagination.” – Fay Godwin
“The darkroom is just the means to an end.” – Kim Weston
“Photography helps people to see.” – Berenice Abbott
Here are some to add to yours and Sandra’s.
“Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.” – Berenice Abbott
“While photographs may not lie, liars may photograph.” – Lewis Hine
“Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs.” – Susan Sontag
“Actually, I’m not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the picture is in the box, I’m not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren’t cooks.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
With regards to the remarks by Henri Cartier-Bresson stating that once the image is in the camera he`s not interested. Being the hunter he does not consider himself the cook. Well Eugene Smith would definitely have something to say about that considering the amount of time he spent in the darkroom. As well, Ansel Adams considered the negative comparable to a musical composition or score. Thus he felt the negative could be subject to many possibilities. Which brings me to another point: given that the negative is the score why haven`t the trustees of his images not considered scanning his images and releasing them for sale to the photographic public? Amen
Every once in a while I get asked “What camera do I use?” Frankly I love that question and I answer it with “One that works.”
As if the camera matters?
Take Care Garry…
P.S…. I love your light bulb. Nicely done!
As it turns out “my camera does takes great photos”. It was bound to happen. 😉
Here are some more quotes for your collection:
Ansel Adams “The so-called rules of composition are, in my mind, invalid, irrelevant and immaterial.”
Andreas Feininger “It’s important to know the rules of composition before you break them.”
Galen Rowell “I almost never set out to photograph a landscape, nor do I think of my camera as a means of recording a mountain or an animal unless I absolutely need a ‘record shot’. My first thought is always of light”
Freeman Patterson “The camera points both ways. In expressing the subject you also express yourself…..”
W. Eugene Smith “Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.”
Yousuf Karsh “If it’s a likeness, alone, it’s not a success. If, through my portraits, you can come to know the subjects more meaningfully, if it synthesizes your feelings toward someone whose work has imprinted itself on your mind–-if you see a photograph and say, ‘Yes, this is the person,’ with a little new insight–-that is a beautiful experience.”
Imogen Cunningham “Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
Ansel Adams “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
Irving Penn “A good photograph is one that communicate a fact, touches the heart, leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.”