Look, I'm not an intellectual - I just take pictures.

Look, I'm not an intellectual - I just take pictures.

Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.

Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, read more

If the man who paints only the tree, or flower, or other surface he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer. It is for the artist to do something beyond this.

Blessed be the inventor of photography! It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity than anything else that read more

Blessed be the inventor of photography! It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity than anything else that has "cast up" in my time -- this art by which even the "poor" can possess themselves of tolerable of their absent dear ones.

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter, because read more

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter, because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary.

Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable read more

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 is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

If photography were difficult in the true sense . . . that the creation of a simple photograph would entail read more

If photography were difficult in the true sense . . . 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.

In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular . . . sight and feeling will appear on a print. read more

In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular . . . sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.