Talk:Photography

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Permission

(Note: the creator of this small compilation of six quotes gives full permission for it to be used on/by WikiQuote.)

I moved the above text from the original article, as it is inappropriate for the article proper, and is almost certainly unnecessary, as one cannot copyright facts or insubstantial collections of facts. But it's here, nonetheless. — Jeff Q 06:02, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Thanks. I just put it there as a guard against the Wikipolice who scream "copyright violation" every time they find similar text elsewhere on the web. 11 Sept 05.

I removed the Eliot Porter quote as it is not accurate. In Wildness is the Preservation of the World was the title of a Porter photo book with text from Henry David Thoreau who is also the author of the quote in the title. I added a Porter quote which is very similar. Don Roberts Who the hell is Eva perfectheart Hartell??

Unsourced

Photography is...

• "Godnificent...something magnificent that was influenced by God" -- Eva perfectheart Hartell
• "the art of frozen time... the ability to store emotion and feelings within a frame" -- Meshack Otieno
• "an austere and blazing poetry of the real" -- Ansel Adams
• "the recording of strangeness and beauty with beguiling precision" -- Sebastian Smee
• "the dominant and fascinating and only folk art of the twentieth century" -- Sir John Rothenstein
• "my meditation" -- Czar Anthony Lopez
• [A camera] "has interesting ideas of its own" -- John Szarkowski.
• "The basic material of photographs is not intrinsically beautiful. It's not like ivory or tapestry or bronze or oil on canvas. You're not supposed to look at the thing, you’re supposed to look through it. It's a window." -- John Szarkowski.
• “Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence.” -- Minor White

On creativity

• “Which of the photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow.” -- Imogen Cunningham

• “I do not object to retouching, dodging or accentuation as long as they do not interfere with the natural qualities of photographic technique.” -- Alfred Stieglitz

• “Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.” -- Garry Winogrand

• “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” -- Henri Cartier-Bresson

• “There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph.” -- Robert Heinecken

• “If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera.” -- Lewis Hine

• “Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.” -- Yousuf Karsh

• “Photography is truth.” -- Jean-Luc Godard

• “There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.” -- Ernst Haas

• “When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear.” -- Alfred Eisenstaedt

• “It is always the instantaneous reaction to oneself that produces a photograph.” -- Robert Frank

• “The subject matter is so much more important than the photographer” --- Gordon Parks

• “Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.” --- Walker Evans

• “At 42, I decided to become a photographer because it offered a means of creative thought and action. I didn't rationalize this, I just felt it intuitively and followed my intuition, which I have never regretted.” -- Wynne Bullock

• “I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.” -- W. Eugene Smith

• “Photography can never grow up if it imitates some other medium. It has to walk alone; it has to be itself.” -- Berenice Abbott

• “It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.” -- Paul Strand

• “Photographs open doors into the past, but they also allow a look into the future.” -- Sally Mann

• "If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff" -- Jim Richardson

From the history of photography

• "No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen." Minor White

• "I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term -- meaning 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. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster." Ansel Adams