Ansel Adams Quotes About Photography
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The dismal half-baked images of the average "reportage" and "documentary" photography are self dammning... the slick manner, the slightly obscure significance, the esoteric fear of simple beauty for its own sake - I am deeply concerned with these manifestations of decay. Gene Smith's work validates my most vigorous convictions that if the documentary photographs is to be truly effective it must contain elements of art, intensity, fine craft and spirituality. All these his work contains and we may turn to his work with gratitude, appreciation and great respect.
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Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment.
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Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real.
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Bad weather makes for good photography.
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It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.
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I believe photography is a tool to express our positive assessment of the world. A tool to acquire ultimate happiness and belief.
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Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.
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There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.
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We make images to "honor what is greater and more interesting than we are."
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The craft of photography is the key to good images.
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When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
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The ‘machine-gun’ approach to photography – by which many negatives are made with the hope that one will be good – is fatal to serious results.
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I tried to keep both arts alive, but the camera won. I found that while the camera does not express the soul, perhaps a photograph can!
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...one sees differently with color photography than black-and-white... in short, visualization must be modified by the specific nature of the equipment and materials being used.
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Photography and photographers have an inevitable development. They progress more or less by steps. Every five or ten years some new point of view is developed and young people are inclined to follow it.
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Notebook. No photographer should be without one!
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All art is a vision penetrating the illusions of reality, and photography is one form of this vision and revelation.
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The negative is the score, and the print the performance.
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The technique of 35mm photography appears simple. One is beguiled by the quick viewing and operation, and by the very questionable inclination to make many pictures with the hope that some will be good.
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I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term - meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching - there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.
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It is easy to take a photograph, but it is harder to make a masterpiece in photography than in any other art medium.
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In a strict sense photography can never be abstract, for the camera is incapable of synthetic integration.
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How high your awareness level is determines how much meaning you get from your world. Photography can teach you to improve your awareness level.
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Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.
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I am always surprised when I see several cameras, a gaggle on lenses, filters, meters, et cetera, rattling around in a soft bag with a complement of refuse and dust. Sometimes the professional is the worst offender!
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I know some photographs that are extraodrinary in their power and conviction, but it is difficult in photography to overcome the superficial power or subject; the concept and statement must be quite convincing in themselves to win over a dramatic and compelling subject situation.
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There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.
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You don't make a photograph just with a camera
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A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels...
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Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.
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