Inspirational Quotes For Photographers

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:

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence” – Ansel Adams

“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

“When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear” – Alfred Eisenstaedt

“My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport” – Steve McCurry

“Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is” – Anonymous

“What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time” – John Berger

“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

“When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes” – Anonymous

“No place is boring if you’ve had a good night’s sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film” – Robert Adams

“Photography is the story I fail to put into words” – Destin Sparks

“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

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop” – Ansel Adams

“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

“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment” – Robert Frank

“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

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second” – Marc Riboud

“A good photograph is knowing where to stand” – Ansel Adams

“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

“A landscape image cuts across all political and national boundaries, it transcends the constraints of language and culture” – Charlie Waite

“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer” – Ansel Adams

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce” – Karl Lagerfeld

“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

“Photography is a love affair with life” – Burk Uzzle

“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

“If I could tell you the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera” – Lewis Hine

“In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated” – August Sander

“Once photography enters your bloodstream, it is like a disease” – Anonymous