Quotes About Photography

I began photographing in 1946. Before that, I was a painter and drawer, with my mother and father's support. They were a bit pissed when I went into photography. They thought photographers were guys who took pictures at weddings.

Photography used to be not for the faint of heart. Its rigors would weed out the not-so-committed pretty quickly. You had to crank the f-stop ring yourself!

A lot of the point mags are going out of business. They dropped the pay tremendously and it's all because of the internet. I used to go out once a month to LA and shoot for one week. I'd make a ton of money then come back to New York and do whatever I wanted.

Polaroid by its nature makes you frugal. You walk around with maybe two packs of film in your pocket. You have 20 shots, so each shot is a world.

The only art I have is a Polaroid from Peter Beard from his book. I shot with him four years ago, and he did a special Polaroid for me, so I consider it a piece of art.

I'm not a politician or a scholar or political historian. I'm just a photographer who's trying to capture a spirit. It's not an intellectual process; it's an intuitive process.

I don't feel comfortable sitting by a pool with other British people who may just gawk and take photographs of me.

I prefer black and white and portrait photography. I like old, you know, interesting faces, so I think black and white brings out the contrast.

My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain.

The landscape is like being there with a powerful personality and I'm searching for just the right angles to make that portrait come across as meaningfully as possible.

It is a serious job being a portrait photographer, which is how I saw myself.

I'm a portrait photographer that's used to shooting celebrities, and I usually need time and all kinds of lights and a studio to set up my shots.

On the personal side, I was rock climbing and taking pictures with my friends. We took all sorts of portrait and action pictures, and I was thinking at the time that these are inherently difficult to focus correctly.

I have always loved reading, so was interested in the literary world, and took many literary portraits.

It's very difficult to take candid portraits of children because they're moving around all the time.

My dad was a photographer, so we had all these studio portraits of us.

It didn't take me very long to realize that modeling wasn't very satisfying. I was always asking people, 'How are you going to set up this shot? How will it be lit?' And they'd say, 'Stop. Just pose.' I had a problem with that.

I'd like to think I'm an approachable fella, and if someone wants me to pose for a picture, I'll always say 'yes' even when I'm with my family.

I never did a nude shoot, I always kept myself limited to bikini shoots. This, however, does not mean that I look down on individuals who pose nude for shoots.

Most photo shoots are a beautiful dress, a natural location, and poses.

I don't think I'll ever be comfortable posing for a photographer; I was never trained.

I shoot a little bit, maybe two rolls, medium format, which is 20 pictures, and if it's not working, I change the position.

Being someone who people want to photograph, you have to open yourself up to the positive and negative. It is what it is.

If I were to save one possession in a fire, it would have to be my dad's camera, an old, broken Nikon. I always keep it with me - his personal things mean a lot.