Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but read more

Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter, because read more

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 everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary.

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is read more

There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.

The charm, one might say the genius, of memory is that it is choosy, chancy and temperamental; it rejects the read more

The charm, one might say the genius, of memory is that it is choosy, chancy and temperamental; it rejects the edifying cathedral and indelibly photographs the small boy outside, chewing a hunk of melon in the dust.

Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable read more

Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it my be.

If photography were difficult in the true sense . . . that the creation of a simple photograph would entail read more

If photography were difficult in the true sense . . . that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching -- there would be a vast improvement in total output.

A photograph is neither taken nor seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. read more

A photograph is neither taken nor seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos.

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, read more

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this.