Henri Cartier-Bresson
[Photographer and painter, b. 1908, Chanteloup, France, d. 2004, Paris.]
One must creep up to the subject on tip toes, even when it involves a still life. One must put on velvet gloves and have Argus eyes. No pushing or crowding: an angler doesn’t stir up the waters beforehand.
Dawoud Bey
[Photographer, b. 1953, Queens, New York, lives in Chicago.]
People say don’t stare. Through the photos, not only do I stare, but I allow viewers to stare at the subject, to see things that they cannot see with a casual glance.
Jacques Derrida
[Philosopher and writer, b. 1930, El Biar, Algeria (then French Algeria), d. 2004, Paris.]
I absolutely forbade all public photographs of myself. I like photography, I don’t have anything against it, but...
Gueorgui Pinkhassov
[Photographer, b. 1952, Moscow, lives in Paris.]
Don’t be afraid to take bad pictures, because good pictures are the mistakes of bad pictures.
Sally Mann
[Photographer, b. 1951, Lexington, Virginia, lives in Lexington.]
Stop trying to get it right. Just take the picture.
Italo Calvino
[Writer, b. 1923, Santiago de la Vegas, Cuba, d. 1985, Siena, Italy.]
Whatever person you decide to photograph, or whatever thing, you must go on photographing it always, exclusively, at every hour of the day and night.
Garry Winogrand
[Photographer, b. 1928, New York, d. 1984, Tijuana, Mexico.]
I don’t have messages in my pictures... For me the true business of photography is to capture a bit of reality (whatever that is) on film… if, later the reality means something to someone else, so much the better.
Arno Rafael Minkkinen
[Photographer, b. 1945, Helsinki, Finland, lives in Andover, Massachusetts.]
Be the caretaker of your vision. Make it famous. And above all, remember, that art is risk made visible.
