Photography Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old photography quotes, photography sayings, and photography proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever, impossible to reproduce. Karl Lagerfeld
When you photograph a face . . .you photograph the soul behind it. Jean-Luc Godard
The whole nature of photography has changed with the advent of a camera in everybody's hand. Sally Mann
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
Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. Robert Frank
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. Dorothea Lange
Today everything exists to end in a photograph. Susan Sontag
Results are uncertain even among the more experienced photographers. Matthew Brady
We are making photographs to understand what our lives mean to us. Ralph Hattersley
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know. Don McCullin
Whatever respect photography may once have deserved is now superfluous in view of its own superfluity. Will Self
There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment. Robert Frank
Life is not about significant details, illuminated a flash, fixed forever. Photographs are. Susan Sontag
Photography is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. Alfred Stieglitz
A photograph is a moral decision taken in one eighth of a second. Salman Rushdie
When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. Ansel Adams
A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it. Edward Steichen
A photograph is like a recipe memory the finished dish. Carrie Latet
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
Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art. Ansel Adams
Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera. Yousuf Karsh
Photography is the recording of strangeness and beauty with beguiling precision. Sebastian Smee
There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are. Eve Arnold
Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it my be. Edward Weston
Photography to me is catching a moment which is passing, and which is true. Jacques-Henri Lartigue
Photography is the story I fail to put into words. Destin Sparks
I know the best moments can never be captured on film, even as I spend nearly half my life trying to do just that. Rosie O'Donnell
Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real. Ansel Adams
The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do. Andy Warhol
The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality. Scott Lorenzo