20 INSPIRATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES

I think every photographer goes through patches of “writers block” and sometimes need a bit of inspiration to get out there in the field. I’m someone who finds flicking through a photography book helps get those creative juices flowing, however, some people are really into inspirational quotes. So, with that in mind, here are 20 quotes that either make me think or encourage me to grab the camera bag and tripod.

• “Photography is the story I fail to put into words.”
  - Destin Sparks

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

• “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

• “We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us.”
  - Ralph Hattersley

• “Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”
  - Don McCullin

• “A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.”
  - Edward Steichen

• “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 the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
  - Elliott Erwitt

• “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
  - Dorothea Lange

• “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”
  - Diane Arbus

• “Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.”
  - Ambrose Bierce

• “If you see something that moves you, and then snap it, you keep a moment.”
  - Linda McCartney

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

• “Shoot the seasons.”
  - Jack Lodge

• “One doesn’t stop seeing. One doesn’t stop framing. It doesn’t turn off and turn on. It’s on all the time.”
  -  Annie Leibovitz

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

• “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
  - Elliott Erwitt

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

• “Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.”
  - Yousuf Karsh

• “Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.”
  - Peter Adams

• “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
  - Elliott Erwitt