I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.
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Inspiring Quotes – Georgia O’Keeffe
An inspiring quotation from Georgia O’Keeffe
Category: Quotes
Quotes from famous photographers
Dewitt Jones Said It All
I was reading an article by Dewitt Jones in the latest Outdoor Photographer last night. I always enjoy reading him; he is so positive and full of enthusiasm. The title of the article was Don’t Prove…Improve! He was recounting his experience when he got hired on as a National Geographic Photographer. Dewitt was a little intimidated. His new boss, Bob Gilka, gave him some advice that applies to us all. He told Dewitt, “You don’t have to prove yourself, not to me or to the other photographers. What I do demand that you do is improve yourself. Every day….”
Dewitt goes on to write,
“[Gilka] understood that when we shoot from our own unique vision, there’s no reason to ‘prove’ ourselves…. There’s only one person on the planet who can do what we do, see as we see.
“Improve ourself? That’s a different story. There’s so much for all of us to learn to make our vision clearer, stronger, sharper. And Gilka knew that the fastest way to learn is to trust and share rather than compete.”
Yep, I always enjoy reading Dewitt’s comments. He is so positive. And right on.
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Inspiring Quotes – Sir Edmund Hillary
I was just an enthusiastic mountaineer of modest abilities who was willing to work quite hard and had the necessary imagination and determination. I was just an average bloke. It was the media that tried to transform me into a heroic figure. But I’ve learned through the years, as long as you don’t believe all that rubbish about yourself, you can’t come to too much harm.
I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Everest. But my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics. That has given me more satisfaction than a footprint on a mountain.
Sir Edmond Hillary, 1st to stand atop Mt Everest along with his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay
As quoted by David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortenson in “Three Cups of Tea”
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Inspiring Quotes – William H. Johnson
When I start out for a day, I usually have something in mind, but I don’t fixate on it. Finding subject matter is the process of narrowing down the possibilities. I’m always open to whatever nature provides me. I can be driving in the middle of nowhere and see something that attracts my eye, something that makes it special, and I have to listen – even if it’s not on my list.
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Inspiring Quotes – Ansel Adams
No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.
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Inspiring Quotes – Jim Brandenburg
Like Thoreau, who had gone to the woods because he “wished to live deliberately, to front only essential facts of life” and to “transact some private business with the fewest obstacles,” I embraced this endeavor, with some trepidation, to see if I could find what had drawn me so long ago to my art, and to see if I had become as perceptive of nature as I hoped. “To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself,” wrote Thoreau.
Nature cannot be twisted to our whims, not even for the purpose of capturing her beauty on film. She must be approached on a level at once aware of both her charms and her harshness. Hers is not a world solely of “calendar” scenes,,, but one also of mystery and hardness, built of the timeless recycling of energy as creatures and plants die and are reborn. Thoreau’s “sunrise” is the calendar photograph that comprises what for some is their sole understanding of nature. My hope was that I would be able to cajole from her something deeper.
{Written as the introduction to Jim’s wonderful book “Chased by the Light” in which he undertakes to expose one frame of file a day for 90 consecutive days from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice in the north woods of Minnesota. To see the photograph referenced by ‘Thoreau’s “Sunrise”‘ go to Day 10 – Boundary Waters Loons.}
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Inspiring Quotes – David Hurn #3
…all photographers of stature whom I admire seem to share this fundamental characteristic: a deep and long-lasting respect and love for the subject matter.
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Inspiring Quotes – David Hurn #2
… photography is only a tool, a vehicle, for expressing or transmitting a passion in something else.
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Inspiring Quotes
As I read more and more about photography in particular and art in general, I come across quotations that resonate. This series of posts will be used to pass these along.
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