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.

Blessed be the inventor of photography! It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity than anything else that read more

Blessed be the inventor of photography! It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity than anything else that has "cast up" in my time -- this art by which even the "poor" can possess themselves of tolerable of their absent dear ones.

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.

To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it read more

To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.

You know what a camera is? A mirror with memory.

You know what a camera is? A mirror with memory.

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.

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.

Many pictures turn out to be limp translations of the known world instead of vital objects which create an intrinsic read more

Many pictures turn out to be limp translations of the known world instead of vital objects which create an intrinsic world of their own. There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph.