Quotes from Sam Abell

I now want to be a photographer of my time, and our common culture.

It matters little how much equipment we use; it matters much that we be masters of all we do use.

I had luck, but I worked hard and I suffered. It's not just photography I'm talking about. It's about whatever dream you want it to be.

As I have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simplicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture is produced. The moment is held until someone sees it. Then it is theirs.

My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it.

There are a lot of ways to be expressive in life, but I wasn't good at some of them. Music, for instance. I was a distinct failure with the cello. Eventually, my parents sold the cello and bought a vacuum cleaner. The sound in our home improved.

There isn't an aspect of book creation I don't enjoy, and there has always been a book in my life to dream about or work on.

Aboriginal Australia is a tough place to work, rough and tough.

For sheer majestic geography and sublime scale, nothing beats Alaska and the Yukon. For culture, Japan. And for all-around affection, Australia.

Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay.

My father taught me photography. It was his hobby, and we had a small darkroom in the fruit cellar of our basement. It was the kind of makeshift darkroom that was only dark at night.