Photography quotes and sayings are not only inspirational words that you can use to get yourself psyched up for a day out shooting – they can also be used to remember how to capture the best images with your camera, and even get your name out there if you choose to put them together with your own images and share them with your friends and family on the internet.
Many photographers over the years have been inspired by the words of other famous photographers.
Great Photography Quotes And Sayings
The best photography quotes can be used to remind you exactly what it means to be a photographer.
Yousuf Karsh, for instance, once said: “Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.”
Nothing could better capture the truth about photography. The camera is the tool that you use to capture the image that shows the emotion that you want to share.
It doesn’t matter how expensive or fancy your equipment is, if you don’t take the time to find the real meaning behind the thing that you’re looking at through your viewfinder.
Sam Abell once said: “I see something special and show it to the camera. The moment is held until someone sees it. Then it is theirs.”
Once again, the essence of being a photographer is put into words that anyone can understand. The reason that you wake up in the morning and head out on your expeditions isn’t to take a picture that no one will ever see. You do it because you want to share the image and have it become part of another person’s life. You want it to affect them, just like seeing it affected you.
Memorable Quotes From Famous Photographers
“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs” – Ansel Adams
“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
“My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph” – Richard Avedon
“I don’t like white paper backgrounds. A woman does not live in front of white paper. She lives on the street, in a motor car, in a hotel room.” – Hemut Newton.
“Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is one they would like to show the world; very often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe.” – Irving Penn
“You see someone on the street, and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw” – Diane Arbus
“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough” – Robert Cappa
“Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.” – Matt Hardy
“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” – Dorothea Lange
“A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.” – Annie Leibovitz
“It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter.” – Alfred Eisenstaedt
“Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies.” – Diane Arbus
“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” – Marc Riboud
“Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.” – Peter Adams
“Your first 1,000 photographs are your worst.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.” – Andy Warhol
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” – Ansel Adams
“When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.” – Ted Grant
“The two most engaging powers of a photograph is to make new things familiar and familiar things seem new.” – William Thackeray
“Your photography is a record of your living for anyone who really sees it.” – Paul Strand
“I think life is too short not to be doing something which you really believe in.” – Steve McCurry
“Photography is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” – Dorothea Lange
“Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation, and execution.” – Ansel Adams
Images and words
Matt Hardy said: “Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.”
The exact same thing is true when it comes to great photography quotes and sayings. Photographers can easily craft a memorable sentence that captures the essence of what they’ve seen in the world, because they do it all of the time with their cameras.
As Ansel Adams famously said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand,” much of the battle is determining how to communicate your experience with your audience.
Both arts require you to observe something memorable in the world and capture it to share with others. The only difference is the tools with which this happens. Whether it’s a camera or a pen, the work is the same.
You Can Make your own Photography Quotes And Sayings
This is a great way of sharing your work and by attributing the original photo to yourself, you stand to gain some internet fame that you can use to advertise your own blog or website.
Since you already know how to capture images, don’t be afraid to craft your own quote. It can be funny or profound and it can be about the mundane or the unique. All that really matters is the way that you see the thing that you want to talk about.
Much in the same way an image relies on your personal experience and feelings regarding it, words are exactly the same. They evoke the same emotions, no matter which tool you’ve used to capture them.
One of the best ways of marrying your favorite photography quotes and your own work is to simply edit them together and share them online. As long as you take the time to really research the quote and get it exactly as the person said it, you can attribute it to them and display the words over your best pictures.
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