31 Best Photography Quotes - Peerspace

Photojournalists best photography quotes

10. “Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths.” 

― Eddie Adams, American photojournalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for his photograph of the execution of the Viet Cong soldier, Nguyễn Văn Lém

11. “If you want to be a photographer, particularly a photojournalist, you want to learn about the world. You want to learn about yourself. And you want to find things that you genuinely care about, because that will be the source of your greatest work.”

— Ed Kashi, American photojournalist with National Geographic and member of VII Photo Agency

12. “It’s a lot more than clicking the shutter…it’s the ideas, it’s the visual voice, it’s the telling the story, it’s kind of going beyond that initial thing that just means you happened to be there at the right time.”

— Ron Haviv, American photojournalist and war photographer, co-founder of VII Photo Agency

13. “If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography can be perceived as the opposite of war.”

— James Nachtwey, American photojournalist and war photographer, member of Magnum Photos and VII Photo Agency, and contract photographer with Time since 1984

14. “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

— Robert Capa, Hungarian war photographer and the only civilian photographer to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day

Quotes on style

15. “Photography is a weapon against what’s wrong out there. It’s bearing witness to the truth.”

— Brent Stirton, American photographer with Getty Images and National Geographic, known for his work covering conflict, health, and environmental issues

16. “People think photography is about photographing. To me, it’s about relationships.”

— Lynsey Addario,American photojournalist whose work focuses on conflicts and human rights issue, especially the role of women in societies which exhibit fundamentalist ideologies

17. “Photograph the world as it is. Nothing’s more interesting than reality.”

— Mary Ellen Mark, American photographer and member of Magnum Photos whose work appears in Life, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times

18. “Photography has the power to undo your assumptions about the world.”

— Aaron Huey, American photojournalist and National Geographic photographer who documented a walk across the continental United States in 2002

Nature and landscape best photography quotes

19. “I don’t come taking millions of pictures. I spend time with them and simply observe. If you wait long enough those amazing images will come.”

— Ami Vitale, American photojournalist and National Geographic photographer, known for her wildlife photography, and World Press Photo awards

20. “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”

— Ansel Adams, American landscape photographer and conservationist, best known for his work in the American West

21. “Gear is the least important part of the equation. Having a vision and being able to articulate an idea visually are much more important.”

— Paul Nicklen, Canadian photographer, marine biologist, and co-founder of SeaLegacy

Quotes on craft

22. “The more you photograph, the more you realize what can and what can’t be photographed. You just have to keep doing it.”

— Eliot Porter, American photographer best known for his early color images of wildlife

23. “The perfection I seek in my photographic composition is a means to show the strength and dignity of animals in nature.”

— Frans Lanting, Dutch wildlife photographer who has worked extensively in the Amazon basin, Africa, and Antarctica

24. “You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn’t waste either.”

— Galen Rowell, wilderness and adventure photographer

25. “Never stop looking, no matter where you are, everywhere there are good photographs”

— Art Wolfe, American wildlife photographer and conservationist, known for his landscapes and nature work

26. “The most memorable photos are layered, in good light, and have something really interesting going on in them. If you can get all three elements into a single frame, now you’re talking.”

— Joel Sartore, American photojournalist and National Geographic photographer, he is the head of the project, Photo Ark