Great Throughts Treasury

"It is by great economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression."

"It is seldom indeed that a composition which was poor when the picture was taken can be improved by reshaping it in the dark room."

"Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. During the work, you have to be sure that you haven't left any holes, that you've captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late."

"Of all forms of expression, photography is the only one which seizes the instant in its flight."

"Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes a precise moment in time."

"It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us."

"'Manufactured' or staged photography does not concern me. And if I make a judgment, it can only be on a psychological or sociological level. There are those who take photographs arranged beforehand and those who go out to discover the image and seize it. For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which - in visual terms - questions and decides simultaneously. In order to "give a meaning" to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what he frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by great economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression. One must always take photos with the greatest respect for the subject and for oneself."

"It is essential, therefore, to approach the subject on tiptoe ? even if the subject is still-life. A velvet hand, a hawk?s eye ? these we should all have. It?s no good jostling or elbowing. And no photographs taken with the aid of flashlight either, if only out of respect of the actual light ? even when there isn?t any of it. Unless a photographer observes such conditions as these, he may become an intolerably aggressive character."

"It seems dangerous to be a portrait artist who does commissions for clients because everyone wants to be flattered, so they pose in such a way that there?s nothing left of truth."

"One has to tiptoe lightly and steal up to one's quarry; you don't swish the water when you are fishing."

"Only a fraction of the camera's possibilities interests me - the marvelous mixture of emotion and geometry, together in a single instant."

"Our eye must constantly measure, evaluate. We alter our perspective by a slight bending of the knees; we convey the chance meeting of lines by a simple shifting of our heads a thousandth of an inch?. We compose almost at the same time we press the shutter, and in placing the camera closer or farther from the subject, we shape the details ? taming or being tamed by them."

"Of all the means of expression, photography is the only one that fixes a precise moment in time. We play with subjects that disappear; and when they?re gone, it?s impossible to bring them back to life. We can?t alter our subject afterward... Writers can reflect before they put words on paper... As photographers, we don?t have the luxury of this reflective time... We can?t redo our shoot once we?re back at the hotel. Our job consists of observing reality with help of our camera (which serves as a kind of sketchbook), of fixing reality in a moment, but not manipulating it, neither during the shoot nor in the darkroom later on. These types of manipulation are always noticed by anyone with a good eye."

"One eye looks within, the other eye looks without."

"Of course it?s all luck."

"Photography appears to be an easy activity; in fact it is a varied and ambiguous process in which the only common denominator among its practitioners is in the instrument."

"Our job is to view events with a clinical eye and to record them, but not to distort them by means of tricks, either while shooting or in the dark room."

"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory."

"Our job is immensely dependent on contacts with people; one false word and they withdraw. Here again, there is no set system, unless it be to pass unnoticed, together with one?s camera, which is always conspicuous. Reactions differ enormously between countries and between social groups; anywhere in the East, for example, a photographer who is impatient or merely in a hurry covers himself with ridicule, and this is irremediable. If ever you lose contact and someone notices your camera, you might just as well forget photography and let children clamber around you."

"Photography appears to be a simple matter, but it demands powers of concentration combined with mental enthusiasm and discipline. It is by strict economy of means that simplicity of expression is achieved."

"Photography as I conceive it, well, it?s a drawing. Immediate sketch, done with intuition and you can correct it. If you have to correct it, it?s with the next picture. But life is very fluid; sometimes the pictures disappear, and there?s nothing you can do. You can?t tell the person, ?Oh, please smile again. Do that gesture again.? Life is once, forever and new all the time."

"Photography is an immediate action; drawing a meditation For me photography is to place head heart and eye along the same line of sight. It is a way of life."

"Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important."

"Photography is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's own originality. It's a way of life."

"Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing a meditation."

"Photography is an instantaneous operation, both sensory and intellectual ? an expression of the world in visual terms, and also a perpetual quest and interrogation."

"Photography is only intuition, a perpetual interrogation ? everything except a stage set."

"Photography is simultaneously and instantaneously the recognition of a fact and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that express and signify that fact."

"Photography is nothing--its life that interests me."

"Photography is, for me, a spontaneous impulse coming from an ever attentive eye which captures the moment and its eternity."

"Photography, being dependent on reality, raises plastic problems which must be solved by the use of our eyes and by the adjustment of our camera. We keep changing our perspective in continual movement governed by rapid reflexes. We compose almost at the moment of pressing the shutter, moving through minutiae of space and time. Sometimes one remains motionless, waiting for something to happen; sometimes the situation is resolved and there is nothing to photograph."

"Photography, for me is a supreme moment captured with a single shot."

"Pictures, regardless of how they are created and recreated, are intended to be looked at. This brings to the forefront not the technology of imaging, which of course is important, but rather what we might call the eye-nology (seeing)."

"Photo-reporting presents the essentials of a problem, or it records an event or impressions. An event is so rich in possibilities that you hover around while it develops. You hunt for the solution. Sometimes you find it in the fraction of a second; sometimes it takes hours, or even days. There is no standard solution, no recipe; you must be alert, as in the game of tennis."

"Reality offers us such wealth that we must cut some of it out on the spot, simplify. The question is, do we always cut out what we should? While we're working, we must be conscious of what we're doing. Sometimes we have the feeling that we've taken a great photo, and yet we continue to unfold. We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole."

"Sharpness is a bourgeois concept."

"Shooting with a Leica is like a long tender kiss, like firing an automatic pistol, like an hour on the analyst's couch."

"Technique is important only insofar as you must master it in order to communicate what you see."

"Taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one`s own originality. It is a way of life."

"Success depends on one's general culture, on one's set of values, one's clarity of mind and vivacity. The thing to be most feared is the artificially contrived, the contrary to life."

"The camera, now as ever, empowers the individual to engage with others from the other side of town or the other side of the world."

"The camera is for us a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy? people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing."

"The camera enables us to keep a kind of visual record. We photo-reporters are people who supply information to a world in haste and swamped, willy-nilly, in a morass of printed matter. This abbreviation of the statement which is the language of photography is very potent; we express, in effect, an adjudgment of what we see, and this demands intellectual honesty. We work in terms of reality, not of fiction, and must therefore ?discover?, not fabricate."

"The chief requirement is to be fully involved in this reality which we delineate in the viewfinder. The camera is to some extent a sort of notebook for recording sketches made in time and space, but it is also an admirable instrument for seizing upon life as it presents itself."

"The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box."

"The decisive moment, it is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression."

"The difference between a good picture and a mediocre picture is a question of millimeters ? small, small difference. But it?s essential. I don?t think there?s so much difference between photographers, but it?s that little difference that counts, maybe."

"The intensive use of photographs by mass media lays ever fresh responsibilities upon the photographer. We have to acknowledge the existence of a chasm between the economic needs of our consumer society and the requirements of those who bear witness to this epoch. This affects us all, particularly the younger generations of photographers. We must take greater care than ever not to allow ourselves to be separated from the real world and from humanity."

"The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt."

"The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality."