Photo Quotes ArchiveQuotes by Edward Weston (27 quotes)
"Photography suits the temper of this age - of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately."
"Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it my be."
"The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh."
"The photograph isolates and perpetuates a moment of time: an important and revealing moment, or an unimportant and meaningless one, depending upon the photographer's understanding of his subject and mastery of his process."
"Since the recording process is instantaneous, and the nature of the image such that it cannot survive corrective handwork, it is obvious that the finished print must be created in full before the film is exposed."
"As great a picture can be made as one's mental capacity--no greater. Art cannot be taught; it must be self-inspiration, though the imagination may be fired and the ambition and work directed by the advice and example of others. "
"To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible."
"Now to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection..."
"Only with effort can the camera be forced to lie: basically it is an honest medium: so the photographer is much more likely to approach nature in a spirit of inquiry, of communion, instead of with the saucy swagger of self-dubbed "artists"."
Source: Sontag, Susan. "On Photography", Page: 186
Photography > Equipment Quote #273
"My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea."
Source: Evans, Harold. "Pictures on a Page : Photo-Journalism, Graphics and Picture Editing", page: 75
Photography > Photographer Quote #274
"I start with no preconceived idea - discovery excites me to focus - then rediscovery through the lens - final form of presentation seen on ground glass, the finished print previsioned completely in every detail of texture, movement, proportion, before exposure - the shutter's release automatically and finally fixes my conception, allowing no after manipulation - the ultimate end, the print, is but a duplication of all that I saw and felt through my camera."
"My true program is summed up in one word: life. I expect to photograph anything suggested by that word which appeals to me."
"Ultimately success or failure in photographing people depends on the photographer's ability to understand his fellow man."
"One does not think during creative work, any more than one thinks when driving a car. But one has a background of years - learning, unlearning, success, failure, dreaming, thinking, experience, all this - then the moment of creation, the focusing of all into the moment. So I can make 'without thought,' fifteen carefully considered negatives, one every fifteen minutes, given material with as many possibilities. But there is all the eyes have seen in this life to influence me."
Source: Fondiller, Harvey V. "The Best of Popular Photography", page: 280
Creativity > Creating Quote #278
"The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?"
"The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don't know what to do with it."
"When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches."
"Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn't photogenic."
"Very often people looking at my pictures say, 'You must have had to wait a long time to get that cloud just right (or that shadow, or the light).' As a matter of fact, I almost never wait, that is, unless I can see that the thing will be right in a few minutes. But if I must wait an hour for the shadow to move, or the light to change, or the cow to graze in the other direction, then I put up my camera and go on, knowing that I am likely to find three subjects just as good in the same hour."
"I see no reason for recording the obvious."
Source: Newhall, Beaumont and Weston, Edward. "The Daybooks of Edward Weston", Volume II. Page 252.
Photography > Photographer Quote #370
"Anything that excites me, for any reason, I will photograph: not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual, nor indulging in extraordinary technique to attract attention."
Source: Newhall, Beaumont and Weston, Edward. "The Daybooks of Edward Weston", Volume II. Page 155.
Photography > Photographer Quote #371
"My way of working – I start with no preconceived idea... discovery excites me to focus – then rediscovery though the lens – final form of presentation seen on ground glass, the finished print previsioned complete in every detail of texture, movement, proportion, before exposure – the shutter's release automatically and finally fixes my conception, allowing no after manipulation – the ultimate end, the print, is but a duplication of all I saw and felt through the camera. "
Source: Newhall, Beaumont and Weston, Edward. "The Daybooks of Edward Weston", Volume II.
Photography > Photographer Quote #372
"The... arguments against photography ever being considered a fine art are: the element of chance which enters in, finding things ready-made for a machine to record, and of course the mechanics of the medium. ...I say that chance enters into all branches of art: a chance word or phrase starts a new trend of thought in a writer, a chance sound may bring a new melody to a musician, a chance combination of lines, new composition to a painter. ...Chance – which in reality is not chance – but being ready, attuned to one's surroundings – and grasp my opportunity.... "
Source: Newhall, Beaumont and Weston, Edward. "The Daybooks of Edward Weston", Volume II.
Photography > Photographer Quote #373
"I was extravagant in the matter of cameras – anything photographic – I had to have the best. But that was to further my work. In most things I have gone along with the plainest – or without. "
Source: Newhall, Beaumont and Weston, Edward. "The Daybooks of Edward Weston", Volume II. Page 159.
Photography > Equipment Quote #374
"I want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render presented without interference of artistic effect."
"...the pepper is beginning to show signs of strain, and tonight should grace a salad. It has been suggested that I am a cannibal to eat my models. (referring to his famous photo "Pepper #30")"
Source: Jay, Bill. "Bill Jay's EndNotes", LensWork, Issue 72, Page 93
Photography > Photographer Quote #539
"People who wouldn't think of taking a sieve to the well to draw water fail to see the folly in taking a camera to make a painting."
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