Photography is a system of visual editing. At bottom, it is a matter of surrounding with a frame a portion of one’s cone of vision, while standing in the right place at the right time. Like chess, or writing, it is a matter of choosing from among given possibilities, but in the case of photography the number of possibilities is not finite but infinite. — John Szarkowski
It is no accident that the photographer becomes a photographer any more than the lion tamer becomes a lion tamer. — Dorothea Lange
If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug a camera. — Lewis Hine
As I progressed further with my project, it became obvious that it was really unimportant where I chose to photograph. The particular place simply provided an excuse to produce work …. you can only see what you are ready to see—what mirrors your mind at that particular time. — George Tice
I began as a painter. In photographing my canvases I discovered the value of reproduction in black and white. The day came when I destroyed the painting and kept the reproduction. From then on I never stopped believing that painting is an obsolete form of expression and that photography will dethrone it when the public is visually educated… I know one thing for sure – I need to experiment in one form or another. Photography gives me the means, a […]
Painting and photography are not two potentially competitive systems for producing and reproducing images, which simply had to arrive at a proper division of territory to be reconciled.
Approach the subject on tiptoe, even if it is a still-life. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
The very question of whether photography is or is not an art is essentially a misleading one.
“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. Ansel Adams
“Socially concerned photographers assume that their work can convey some kind of stable meaning, can reveal truth. But partly because the photograph is, always, an object in a context, this meaning is bound to drain away; that is, the context which shapes whatever immediate—in particular, political—uses the photograph may have is inevitably succeeded by contexts in which such uses are weakened and become progressively less relevant.”