INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

One of my biggest influences in my photography is the comfort and knowledge that we have many great past-masters of photography to draw inspiration from. Some of the quotes are from famous photographers and others are not; in fact some are not even photographers at all, but are bonafide observers of art in general. Either way, I hope you find these quotes as inspirational as I do.

Some of the quotes below can also be found at appropriate spots throughout this website

 

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

Henri Cartier Bresson (1908-2004) - French Photographer/Artist


“You fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there.”

Joel Meyerowitz (1938-present) - American Photographer


“Photography allows you to learn to look and see. You begin to see things you'd never paid attention to.”

Saul Leiter (1923-2013) - American Photographer/Painter


“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.”

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) - American Photographer


“Artists are people driven by the tension between the desire to communicate and the desire to hide.” 

Donald Woods Winnicott (1896-1971) - English Psychoanalyst


“I like the Zen artists: they’d do some work, and then they’d stop for a while.”

Saul Leiter (1923-2013) - American Photographer/Painter


“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) - Spanish Painter/Sculptor


“You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again.

You can also look at the picture for a second and think of it all your life.”

Joan Miro (1893-1983) - Spanish Painter/Sculptor


“If you don’t draw from within then you are not really creating.”

Joe Cornish - (1958-present) - English Landscape Photographer


The purpose of illustration is to say: “Here’s what you would have seen had you been there.”

The purpose of art is to say: “Here’s what you would not have seen had I not shown it to you, even if you were standing next to me.”

Guy Tal (current) - Israeli (America) Photographic Artist/Writer


“In order to build a career and be successful, one has to be determined. One has to be ambitious.

I much prefer to drink coffee, listen to music and to paint when I feel like it.”

Saul Leiter (1923-2013) - American Photographer/Painter


"Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) - Theoretical Physicist



“Your Art is not about how many people like your work.

Your art is about if your heart and your soul likes your work”

Rupi Kaur (1992-present) Canadian Poet/Photographer/Illustrator


“Only when I experience do I compose - only when I compose do I experience”

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Austrian Composer


“Exposure occupies the mind while intuition frames the images.”

Minor White (1908-1976) American Photographer


“Of course it’s all luck”

Henri Cartier Bresson (1908-2004) - French Photographer/Artist


Related links

A personal statement of belief As I see it >>

Photographer, artist and intent Of course it’s not art >>

More muses >>