They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But I wonder, what else do “they” say?
In order to find out I’ve culled together the best quotes on the subject of photography.
I hope they inspire you.
Photography is the story I fail to put into words. Destin Sparks
When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. Ansel Adams
If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. Robert Mapplethorpe
In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. Alfred Stieglitz
There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. Robert Frank
Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is. Anonymous
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. Aaron Siskind
We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us. Ralph Hattersley
A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people. Annie Leibovitz
You don’t take a photograph. You ask quietly to borrow it. Unknown
Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures. Don McCullin
A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it. Edward Steichen
It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are. Paul Caponigro
The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do. Andy Warhol
Taking pictures is like tiptoeing into the kitchen late at night and stealing Oreo cookies. Diane Arbus
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. Elliott Erwitt
The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality. Scott Lorenzo
If the photographer is interested in the people in front of his lens, and if he is compassionate, it’s already a lot. The instrument is not the camera but the photographer. Eve Arnold
A tear contains an ocean. A photographer is aware of the tiny moments in a persons life that reveal greater truths. Anonymous
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. Dorothea Lange
Essentially what photography is is life lit up. Sam Abell
I don’t trust words. I trust pictures. Gilles Peress
I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them. Diane Arbus
Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second. Marc Riboud
Once you learn to care, you can record images with your mind or on film. There is no difference between the two. Anonymous
Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art. Ambrose Bierce
Photography is truth. Jean-Luc Godard
The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much. Annie Leibovitz
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
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know. Diane Arbus
The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words. Elliott Erwitt
One doesn’t stop seeing. One doesn’t stop framing. It doesn’t turn off and turn on. It’s on all the time. Annie Leibovitz
What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce. Karl Lagerfeld
A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective. Irving Penn
Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph. Matt Hardy
To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting 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. Elliott Erwitt
You don’t take a photograph, you make it. Ansel Adams
When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes. Anonymous
I wish that all of nature’s magnificence, the emotion of the land, the living energy of place could be photographed. Annie Leibovitz
I never have taken a picture I’ve intended. They’re always better or worse. Diane Arbus
All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. Richard Avedon
Today everything exists to end in a photograph. Susan Sontag
I think good dreaming is what leads to good photographs. Wayne Miller
I love the people I photograph. I mean, they’re my friends. I’ve never met most of them or I don’t know them at all, yet through my images I live with them. Bruce Gilden
If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff. Jim Richardson
When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph. Annie Leibovitz
My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport. Steve McCurry
Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera. Yousuf Karsh
The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation. Susan Meiselas
Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure. Tony Benn
It is more important to click with people than to click the shutter. Alfred Eisenstaedt
I like to photograph anyone before they know what their best angles are. Ellen Von Unwerth
Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field. Peter Adams
Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important and capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out, just take another shot. Unknown
Only photograph what you love. Tim Walker
In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated. August Sander
When I photograph, what I’m really doing is seeking answers to things. Wynn Bullock
Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness. Yousuf Karsh
It’s weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don’t even amount to a couple of hours. James Lalropui Keivom
Once photography enters your bloodstream, it is like a disease. Anonymous
Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow. Imogen Cunningham
