ANSEL ADAMS

There are worlds of experience beyond the world of the aggressive man, beyond history, and beyond science. The moods and qualities of nature and the revelations of great art are equally difficult to define; we can grasp them only in the depths of our perceptive spirit.

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.

Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment.

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.

These people live again in print as intensely as when their images were captured on old dry plates of sixty years ago... I am walking in their alleys, standing in their rooms and sheds and workshops, looking in and out of their windows. Any they in turn seem to be aware of me.

I tried to keep both arts alive, but the camera won. I found that while the camera does not express the soul, perhaps a photograph can!

The only things in my life that compatibly exists with this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit.

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.

Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.

When I'm ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I'm interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without.

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.

Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.

The negative is comparable to the composer's score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.

Myths and creeds are heroic struggles to comprehend the truth in the world.

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

A good photograph is knowing where to stand.

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.

It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators.

A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into.

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance.