Henri Cartier-Bresson
[Photographer and painter, b. 1908, Chanteloup, France, d. 2004, Paris.]
Thinking should be done beforehand and afterwards—never while actually taking a photograph.
Sally Mann
[Photographer, b. 1951, Lexington, Virginia, lives in Lexington.]
Stop trying to get it right. Just take the picture.
Douglas McCulloh
[Photographer, b. 1959, Los Angeles, lives in Los Angeles.]
A meaningful conceptual basis is always more important than vivid photographs, and vice versa.
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
[Photographer, b. 1902, Mexico City, d. 2002, Mexico City.]
Shoot what you see, not what you think.
Minor White
[Photographer, writer, and theorist, b. 1908, Minneapolis, Minnesota, d. 1976, Cambridge, Massachusetts.]
Let the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera.
Alfred Stieglitz
[Photographer and curator, b. 1864, Hoboken, New Jersey, d. 1946, New York.]
Don’t be afraid. Just go ahead—photograph, photograph, photograph. That’s the only way you’ll learn.
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.
Edwin Land
[Inventor and entrepreneur, b. 1909, Bridgeport, Connecticut, d. 1991, Cambridge, Massachusetts.]
Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
