The phrases of great photographers can inspire us as much as one of their images. Some of the phrases of these photographers have been engraved forever in our cerebral cortex, and some will be after reading this article .
I hope you let yourself be embraced by the wisdom contained in these famous photo quotes, which range from the photographic eye to technique, but above all they tell us about the importance of the figure of the photographer in the whole process.
Without further ado, I leave you with these 101 phrases from great photographers so that you never lack inspiration.
This phrase tells us about the importance of perseverance and practice:
1. Your first 10,000 photos will be your worst photos.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
On the need to search for the photograph:
2. Nothing happens while you are sitting at home. Whenever I can I like to take a camera with me everywhere. So I can shoot what interests me at the right time.
elliot erwitt
Technique, creativity and heart must go together in the search for a good photograph:
3. To photograph is to place the head, the eye and the heart on the same axis.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
This phrase about photography is the typical one that generates debate ?:
4. Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph is like consulting the Law of Gravity before going for a walk.
Edward Weston
On the need to be original and seek different points of view:
5. If I saw something through my viewfinder that looked familiar, I would do something to change it.
Garry Winogrand
Phrase about the essence that black and white achieves in photography:
6. When you photograph a person in color, you photograph their clothing, when you photograph a person in black and white, you photograph their soul.
ted grant
7. Black and white are the colors of the photograph. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which humanity is subjected forever.
Robert Frank
Interesting this phrase from the famous writer Milan Kundera:
8. The memory does not store movies, it stores photos.
Milan Kundera
Phrase about the importance of suggesting in photography:
9. A photograph is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you, the less you know.
diane arbus
On the treatment of the universal in photography:
10. The more specific you are, the more general it will be.
diane arbus
The great portrait painter Arnold Neman leaves us with this phrase to reflect on:
11. What people do you like to photograph? My answer is “those I love, those I admire, and those who hate me”.
arnold newman
Photography and its ability to fight against time at the hands of the excellent photographer Cristina García Rodero:
12. Photography is a struggle. The enemy is time and you win when you manage to freeze it at the right moment, preventing something that speaks of you and what is happening from dying and disappearing forever.
Cristina Garcia Rodero
This phrase about simplicity when working, I attest that it works ?:
13. Limit your tools, focus on one thing and make it work... You get very inventive with the restrictions you put on yourself.
Anton Corbjin
The best is yet to come:
14. Which of my photos is my favorite photo? One that I am going to do tomorrow.
Imogen Cunningham
This sentence tells us about the photographer's relationship with life; nothing is more important, not even photography ? :
15. A good photographer must love life more than photography itself.
Joel Strasser
We have said it many times, it is not the camera but the person behind it, and this quote sums it up perfectly:
16. The most important thing is not the camera, but the eye.
alfred eisenstaedt
When the camera and the technique become part of the photographer and we stop thinking about them, creativity begins:
17. One becomes a photographer when he has overcome the concerns of learning and in his hands the camera becomes an extension of oneself. Then the creativity begins.
Carl Mydans
You always have to let the viewer participate in the image, as this great phrase by Doisneau says:
18. You must let the person looking at the photograph do something to finish it. You should offer them a seed that will grow and open their minds.
robert doisneau
Phrase about the importance of light in photography by the founder of Kodak:
19. Light makes photography. Take advantage of the light. Admire her. love her. But above all, get to know her. Know everything it is used for and you will be able to know the key to photography.
George Eastman
The magic of the photographer
20. Photography is a tool to deal with things that everyone knows but nobody pays attention to. My photographs are intended to represent something that you do not see.
emmet gowin
Photography as a vehicle to change things:
21. Photography could be that dim light that modestly helps us change things .
W. Eugene Smith
The technique is of little use if we do not train our photographic eye:
22. All the technique in the world does not compensate for the inability to realize something.
elliot erwitt
This sentence summarizes what we say many times on the blog: it is not the camera but the person behind it:
23. Many photographers think that if they buy a better camera they will be able to take better photos. A better camera won't do anything for you if there is nothing in your head or in your heart.
arnold newman
On the need to connect with reality to continue photographing:
24. The trap of photography is that you can end up looking at everything through a camera, instead of seeing it for yourself. The visor isolates you. When you look through one you are removing everything else from your vision. The camera can open many doors, but sometimes it is necessary to put it aside and live.
Maggie Steber
One of the most famous photographic phrases is undoubtedly this one from Capa:
25. If your photos aren't good enough, it's because you're not close enough.
robert capa
Photography teaches us to see:
26. The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
Dorothea Lange
They do not understand one without the other:
27. There are always two people in each painting: the photographer and the viewer.
Ansel Adams
Phrase about the importance of finding our own personal photographic style and the courage that this requires:
28. Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that secures your goal and your imaginative vision against the safe players, the common creatures, the slaves of the ordinary .
peter lindbergh
I love this phrase from McCurry and I think it is totally true, if you like portrait photography, you should try to make others forget about your camera:
29. If you know how to wait, people will forget about your camera and then their soul will come out.
Steve McCurry
Elliott Erwitt is undoubtedly an expert in observing and seeing what others do not see:
30. Photography is the art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I've come to realize that it has little to do with the things you see and a lot to do with how you see them .
elliott erwitt
31. Through my photography I can speak in more intricate and profound ways than through words.
Richard Avedon
32. To photograph is to appropriate what is photographed.
Susan Sontag
On the importance of following your instincts from the great war journalist James Nachtwey:
33. It is very difficult to say where you are going until you arrive. That kind of thing relies a lot on instinct. As a photographer, one of the most important lessons I've learned is that you have to learn to listen and trust your own instincts. He has helped guide me, at least for now.
James Nachtway
34. I am not interested in photography but in life.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
35. Seeing is not enough, you have to feel what you are photographing.
andre kertesz
36. Photography is like life, what does it mean? I don't know, but it leaves an impression, a feeling, I distrust people who know what life means.
Leonard Freed
This sentence tells us about breaking the rules, a debate that we have had at some time on the blog and that has always given us interesting ideas:
37. I didn't write the rules, why should I follow them?
W. Eugene Smith
38. It seems to me that women have a better chance of success in photography than men... Women are faster and more adaptable. I think they have an intuition that helps them understand personalities more quickly than men.
lee miller
39. The technique certainly helps make photography magical, but I prefer to work with the atmosphere.
Ellen vonUnwerth
This photographic phrase invites us to always try to go further and not settle:
40. You have to ask more of yourself. You have to start looking for pictures that no one else can take. You have to take your tools and go further.
William Albert Allard
This quote from Ernst Haas tells us that there are no limits beyond ourselves:
41. The limitations of photography are in oneself, because what we see is what we are. If beauty were not in us, how could we recognize it?
Ernst Haas
A good photograph is, or nothing can make it so ?
42. No matter how much you play with colors or printing papers, nothing will transform an ordinary photograph into something other than an ordinary photograph.
Bill Brandt
43. Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of opinions, interpretations and performances.
Ansel Adams
This sentence contains one of the best photographic exercises that you can practice:
44. I am always mentally photographing everything to practice.
Minor White
45. Of course, there will always be those who only look at the technique, who ask "how", while others, of a more curious nature, ask "why". Personally I have always preferred inspiration to information.
Man Ray
Good lighting is capable of converting a scene:
46. I am always chasing the light. Light makes the ordinary magical.
Trent Parke
This phrase about photography as a means of universal expression gives food for thought:
47. Photography is the only language that can be understood and understood throughout the world.
Bruno Barbey
48. The alphabet is not important. The important thing is what you are writing, what you are expressing. The same goes for photography.
André Kertesz
49. Photography, as we know, is not something real. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.
arnold newman
Freeing yourself from technical issues to let creativity flow is one of the recommendations of many of the great photographers:
50. If you want to take good pictures, the camera has to be a second skin for you. Devoting too much attention to technical decisions can interfere with your creative processes.
Robert Farber
51. Ultimately, simplicity is the goal in all works of art, and achieving simplicity is one of the hardest things to do; however, it is the most essential.
Pete Turner
52. Photography with sincerity and effectiveness is to see below the surfaces.
Ansel Adams
53. Don't shoot what it looks like, shoot what it transmits.
david allan harvey
54. It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things, but in photography... You need a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.
David Bailey
Hardly a good team will make you a better photographer if you don't practice:
55. The skill in photography is acquired with practice, and not buying.
Percy W. Harris
56. If you have nothing to say, your photos won't say much.
Gordon Parks
57. The key is to photograph your obsessions; whether they are the hands of older people or skyscrapers. Think about a blank canvas, because that's what you have, and then think about what you want to see, no one else.
david lachapelle
58. The photograph is true. And the cinema is true twenty-four times a second.
Jean Luc Godard
59. If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to carry a camera with me.
lewis hine
What phrase defines what a good photograph should make you feel?:
60. If it makes you laugh, if it makes you cry, if it tears your heart out, that's a good photograph.
eddy adams
61. My favorite words are possibilities, opportunities, and curiosity. If you are curious, you create opportunities, and if you open doors, you create possibilities.
mario testino
62. For me, a photograph is a page of life, and that is the question, it must be real.
Weegee
63. When I'm taking photos, what I'm really doing is looking for answers to things.
wyn bullock
64. The best images are those that retain their strength and impact over the years, despite the number of times they are viewed .
Anne Geddes
65. If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting things .
Jim Richardson
These types of phrases are the ones that we should record ourselves as photographers: the image is not going to come looking for you, you must go out for it ?:
66. The most important piece of equipment after the camera is a good pair of shoes. A writer can work from a hotel room, but a photographer has to be there, so he has to walk a lot.
david hurn
67. Satisfaction comes from working with 500 photographers and coming out with something different.
David Burnett
68. Photography for me is not looking, it is feeling. If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you'll never make others feel anything when they look at your photos.
Don McCullin
69. A photograph is a collision between a person with a camera and reality. The photograph is usually as interesting as the collision.
Charles Harbutt
A phrase about the role of photography in the world around us, which is very interesting in the context we live in:
70. The fact that people use Instagram and take photos with mobile phones does not mean that the images are meaningful, in the same way that a text that someone sends to a friend is not great literature. Is it something that will last? Will it inspire us?
Steve McCurry
71. Photographing a cake can be art.
Irving Penn
72. I can't tell you how many photos I've missed, ignored, trampled on, or for any other reason, just because I was hell-bent on getting the shot I thought I wanted.
Joe McNally
This phrase about the perseverance and self-demand that a good photographer must have makes you think:
73. I think I have shot about 40,000 negatives and of those I have about 800 photos that I like.
Harry Callahan
74. No need to resort to tricks to take photos. You don't have to make anyone pose for the camera. The photos are there waiting for you to take them. The truth is the best photography, the best propaganda.
robert capa
75. Taking pictures is like fishing or writing. It is bringing the unknown that resists or refuses to light.
Jean Gaumy
This phrase is very inspiring when we think that the place where we are determines that we can take good pictures. Good images are everywhere, you just have to look for them.
76. Never stop looking, no matter where you are, there are good pictures everywhere.
art wolfe
77. Photography is an answer that has to do with the momentary recognition of things. Suddenly you are alive. A minute later there is no one. I just watched it evaporate. You look at one moment and there is everything, the next moment it is gone. Photography is very philosophical.
Joel Meyerowitz
78. People cannot be taught to take pictures, they must learn it in the best possible way. They can learn by looking at pictures... but they don't really engage with the medium until they've gotten some bad shots.
Cecil Beaton
79. The best images are differentiated by nuances... A small relationship, be it a harmony or a discrepancy, creates an image.
Ernst Haas
80. A good photograph is like a good bloodhound, silly but eloquent.
Eugène Atget
81. Photography is not about what is photographed. It's all about how that thing looks photographed.
Garry Winogrand
If we are not well present as photographers, we are not fully present, because things do not repeat themselves:
82. Photography is a medium where if you don't shoot often you don't shoot at all, because things don't happen twice. A rock will probably always be more or less exactly as you saw it yesterday. But other things change, they're not always there the day after or the week after.
Paul Strand
83. Taking photos is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.
Marc Riboud
84. When people look at my photos I want them to feel like they want to read a line of a poem a second time.
Robert Frank
85. Photography helps people to see .
Bernice Abbott
86. A photo never turned out the way I wanted. They always come out better or worse .
diane arbus
87. You have to do what you want, what comes out every day. Your style is you.
ouka leele
88. Photography is not taken by force. It takes itself. It is the photograph that takes you.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
89. The photographer is the contemporary being par excellence; through his gaze, the now becomes the past.
Bernice Abbott
90. In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.
Alfred Stieglitz
91. The photographer cannot be a passive spectator, he cannot be really lucid if he is not involved in the event.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
This phrase about the importance of being yourself as a photographer and looking with your own eyes:
92. The main instrument of a photographer is his eyes. Oddly enough, many photographers choose to use the eyes of another photographer, past or present, instead of their own. These photographers are blind.
Manuel Alvarez Bravo
93. No place is boring, if you slept well and have a pocket full of unused film rolls.
Robert Adams
94. If each photograph steals your soul a little, isn't it possible that I am leaving parts of my soul every time I take a photograph?
Richard Avedon
95. Today everything exists to culminate in a photograph.
Susan Sontag
96. Most photographers work best alone, myself included.
elliott erwitt
97. Landscape photography is the photographer's ultimate test, and often the ultimate disappointment.
Ansel Adams
98. It's more important to click with people than with the camera.
alfred eisenstaedt
99. Nobody escapes the fascination that photography produces, it is like a magic box.
ouka leele
100. I like photographs that leave something to the imagination.
Fay Godwin
We will end this series of photography phrases with this one from Julio Cortazar who, although he was a writer before a photographer, I think defines what photography is capable of filling us with :
101. Among the many ways to combat nothingness, one of the best is to take pictures.
Julio Cortazar
I hope you liked this compilation of phrases from photographers , if so, do not hesitate to share the article, surely more people are interested in taking a look at some of these inspiring quotes .
