Its revealed things that were once hidden and documented important events and cultures so that theyll never be forgotten.
These aspects of it affect more than the viewers, but the picture takers, too.
To understand the impact, theyve offered their wisdom through compelling quotes about photography.
Photo: “The Tetons and the Snake River” (1942) by Ansel Adams, viaWikimedia Commons
Many sayings speak to the silent truths that the camera captures.
I dont trust words.
I trust pictures, photographer Gilles Peress.
Photo: Film still from Vivre sa Vie, 1962
What you have caught on film is captured forever…
It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.
Sometimes, its as easy as taking a step in the right direction.
“Migrant Mother” (1936) by Dorothea Lange
A good photograph is knowing where to stand, Ansel Adams instructs.
But if that fails, just remember, according toHenri Cartier-Bresson, Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.
Photo: Film still from Vivre sa Vie, 1962
On what is photography…
“Georgia O’Keeffe” (1918) by Alfred Stieglitz, viaWikipedia
Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving.
What you have caught on film is captured forever…
It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.
“Araberscheich mit Kamelkarawane” (1925) by Walter Mittelholzer, viaWikimedia Commons
Aaron Siskind
Photography is the story I fail to put into words.
Andy Warhol
A tear contains an ocean.
A photographer is aware of the tiny moments in a persons life that reveal greater truths.
“New York, New York. 61st Street between 1st and 3rd Avenues.” (1938) by Walker Evans, viaLibrary of Congress
Anonymous
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
Dorothea Lange
The camera is the eye of history.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Migrant Mother (1936) by Dorothea Lange
A photograph is a secret about a secret.
“Wall Street” (1915) by Paul Strand, viaWikipedia
The more it tells you the less you know.Diane Arbus
All photographs are accurate.
None of them is the truth.
Richard Avedon
Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.
Peter Adams
Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it gives the impression of.
To take a photograph is to participate in another persons (or things) mortality, vulnerability, mutability.
Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to times relentless melt.
Helmut Newton
Georgia O’Keeffe (1918) by Alfred Stieglitz, viaWikipedia
On why they take pictures…
When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.
When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
Ansel Adams
We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.
Annie Leibovitz
The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality.
Scott Lorenzo
For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Photography is my passion, the search for truth, my obsession.
Diane Arbus
I dont trust words.
Gilles Peress
The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise dont belong.
It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation.
Richard Avedon
Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.
Edward Weston
I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough.
In fact, my pictures show me how much Ive lost.
Anyone I know I photograph.
Annie Leibovitz
I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.
The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.
James Nachtwey
Most of my images are grounded in people.
I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a persons face.
Steve McCurry
My pictures are my eyes.
I photograph what I seeand what I want to see.
It’s more challenging to look at the other side.
Cindy Sherman
New York, New York.
61st Street between 1st and 3rd Avenues.
(1938) by Walker Evans, viaLibrary of Congress
On what makes a good photograph…
It is easy to make a picture of someone and call it a portrait.
The difficulty lies in making a picture that makes the viewer care about a stranger.
Paul Strand
A portrait is not a likeness.
There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph.
All photographs are accurate.
None of them is the truth.
Richard Avedon
A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.
Ansel Adams
The truth is the best picture, the best propaganda.
Robert Capa
Good photography is unpretentious.
Walker Evans
There’s no particular class of photograph that I think is any better than any other class.
I’m always and forever looking for the image that has spirit!
I don’t give a damn how it got made.
Minor White
If a picture is good, it tells many different stories.
Josef Koudelka
Be yourself.
William Klein
Wall Street (1915) by Paul Strand, viaWikipedia
Offering their own photography advice…
There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.
Robert Frank
A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.
Paul Caponigro
If you see something that moves you, and then snap it, you keep a moment.
Linda McCartney
There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.
Ansel Adams
Your photography is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees.
The one I’m going to take tomorrow.
Imogen Cunningham
One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.
Minor White
Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference.
Robert Frank
The more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.
Richard Avedon
