Mike Figgis Quotes

My dad had been an ardent amateur photographer, and he taught me to compose a photograph from the back to the front, and then populate the picture.

I just walk around, observing the subject from various angles until the picture elements arrange themselves into a composition that pleases my eye.

There are a thousand ways to point a camera, but really only one.

I'm just interested in what makes a photograph.

Videos are more like photography. It's not as much about trying to tell a story as it is creating images.

I always say I make pictures rather than take pictures.

Making a movie and not directing the little moments is like drinking a soda and leaving the little slurp puddle for someone else.

Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.

I always try hard to arrange all media in a way so that it expresses what I want - this is not limited to one medium alone and varies from case to case.

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

I love photography, and I love the art of photography.

I have always stood in awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel.

Like most photographers, I try to capture a moment in my work.

I just love photographing things and putting them together to tell a story.

To me, that is the essence of me as a photographer. It is those ideas, working with them, formulating them and eventually putting them down on paper, photographing them and then going on to the next step.

Photography, for me, is something I can control fully. It's wholly my own expressions.

I wish I were a really good photographer.

It's actually one of the only things that I do that I don't get frustrated over. Everything else I do - racing, golf, video games - those things I want to win at. With photography, I think the camera wins every time.

In everything I do, the aesthetics are driven by the emotion. However I can do that with a camera, whether it's a long lens or a wide lens, I'll do.

Everything I choose to photograph, I think is beautiful.

I love photography myself.

I have more of a relationship with the subject than I do with my camera equipment. To me, camera equipment is like a tin of shoe polish and a brush - I use that as a tool, but my basic camera is my emotion and my eyes. It's not anything to do with the wonderful cameras I use.

I enjoy photography. It's a lot of fun. It keeps me on my P's and Q's and, when you think about it, most people think photography is just going to a game. But you start to think, dang, that would be a good picture. Or you're driving along and see something and think, 'that would be nice.'

If you're a photographer, you end up being the raw creative force that allows other people to see what kind of narrative you want to be giving or what kind of art that you want people to see.

I love photography... I'd like to write a show about photography.