It might be easy to get inspiration from a photographer’s images, but the artist’s words can also be a great well of motivation. If you’re looking for that little push to get back to photography, or just want to read through what the masters have said, search no further. Their images speak for themselves, but how much can you really know without a little look into their thoughts and processes? Here, we give you 16 photography quotes to get you inspired to shoot. Get out there already!

"When you look at my pictures, you are seeing my life."

Douglas Kirkland.

Douglas Kirkland SEE my Photos...

“You know, I really don’t think you learn from teachers. You learn from work. I think what you learn, really, is how to be – you have to be your own toughest critic, and you only learn that from work, from seeing work.” – Garry Winogrand “Seeing is not enough; you have to feel what you photograph” – Andre Kertesz

“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.” – Ernst Haas

“There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” – Robert Frank

“There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” – Ansel Adams

“It’s important to take bad pictures. It’s the bad ones that have to do with what you’ve never done before. They can make you recognize something you hadn’t seen in a way that will make you recognize it when you see it again.” – Diane Arbus

“If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it’s a street photograph.” – Bruce Gilden

“A camera alone does not make a picture. To make a picture you need a camera, a photographer and above all a subject. It is the subject that determines the interest of the photograph.” – Man Ray “A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.” – Irving Penn

“After following the crowd for a while, I’d then go 180 degrees in the exact opposite direction. It always worked for me.” – Elliott Erwitt

“To me, photography must suggest, not insist or explain.” – Brassai

“If you want to be a better photographer, stand in front of more interesting stuff.” – Jim Richardson “If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it.” – Jay Maisel

“A good photographer records; a great photographer reveals.” – Skyler Reid

Conclusion

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