We all know that a picture speaks a thousand words, but what about the photographers who take those pictures? Let us inspire the photographer in you with quotes from some of the professionals out there. We’ve slipped in some of the submissions for Africa’s Photographer of the Year in the Africa Through My Lens category into this list of 28 inspirational quotes for photographers:
Matrishva Vyas: Two to Tango
“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence” – Ansel Adams
Nimit Virdi: Topi Fight
“A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective” – Irving Penn
Jean Goldstone: Blue cheeked bee eaters
“When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear” – Alfred Eisenstaedt
Jane Pearce: Sunset at Phinda
“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport” – Steve McCurry
John Mullineux: Stars Hotel
“Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is” – Anonymous
Chandrashekar Kalyanasundaram: Target Locked
“What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time” – John Berger
John Mullineux: Never Give Up
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with things you see and everything to do with the way you see them” – Elliot Erwitt
Fransje van Riel: Lions bonding
“When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes” – Anonymous
Brigitte Cottet: Sunrise in Namibia
“No place is boring if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film” – Robert Adams
Mike Walsh: Agama and Butterfly in Kgalagadi
“Photography is the story I fail to put into words” – Destin Sparks
Ferdinand Veer: San and Moon
“The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed” – Anne Gedded
Nili Gudhka: Catwalk
“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop” – Ansel Adams
Jonty Tatz: Survey, Stalk, Survive
“Your first 10,000 photographs are the worst” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
“In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality” – Alfred Stieglitz
John Mullineux: Dusk Owl Hunt
“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment” – Robert Frank
Claudia Danowski: Hide
“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever. It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything” – Aaron Siskind
Johanna Ban: To honour the strength of the African women and their dignity
“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second” – Marc Riboud
“A good photograph is knowing where to stand” – Ansel Adams
Nimit Virdi: Up is down or is it up
“The camera makes your forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much” – Annie Leibovitz
Greg Metro: An Ethiopian Orthodox Priest
“A landscape image cuts across all political and national boundaries, it transcends the constraints of language and culture” – Charlie Waite
Neil Preyer: Monks Cowl Drakensberg
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer” – Ansel Adams
Sean Brogan
“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce” – Karl Lagerfeld
David Cox: Iconic view of an iconic city
“The camera is an excuse to be someplace you otherwise don’t belong. It gives me both a point of connection and a point of separation” – Susan Meiselas
Jackie Badenhorst: Twilight Moments
“Photography is a love affair with life” – Burk Uzzle
Bethany Ogdon: Leaping into the Mara
“Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important and capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out, just take another shot” – Anonymous
Beate Schwippert: 6 eyes
“If I could tell you the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera” – Lewis Hine
John Birch: Never Look Back
“In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated” – August Sander
Michael Raddal: The circle of life
“Once photography enters your bloodstream, it is like a disease” – Anonymous
Laurence Connor: Contemplation
Written by
Jemma's love for nature and culture grew while growing up on her family's dairy farm in the Natal Midlands. Since then she has been a ski lift operator in the Sierra Nevada, an Au Pair in London, an English teacher in Vietnam and is now writing about her favourite continent - Africa.
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I learned information from your quotes. Your photography always entices me to be the good photographer like you. Thanks, Jemma Brewitt for sharing your awesome post.
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