Alfred Eisenstaedt Quotes

I always think, 'What does this picture mean? What's the best place to put my camera? Do I have anything extra in the picture, things in the background that will distract? Am I in the basic position that will give the essential things for this picture but not too much?'

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 always wanted to know what lens they were on, how close they were. I didn't do it with a plan in mind, but I would instinctively gear what I was doing toward what lenses they were using.

There's a natural set of constraints with mobile phones that force you to be a better photographer by acknowledging and observing the world around you.

Cinematography is so much about instinct and intuition - you want the same range of experience going into behind the camera as what you see in front of it. Your life experience will come through the lens.

Essentially, in photography, I think on two levels: one emotional and the other technical. The emotional impact has to do with looking for something dramatic happening in the photograph, something that reaches out and touches somebody in some way. And the technical is having to do with composition and framing - light and dark, light and shadow.

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

My theory of composition? Simple: do not release the shutter until everything in the viewfinder feels just right.

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

Photography can be a volatile situation. It can be very potent.

I'm not an artist. I set the camera up and tell my story.

I'm just interested in what makes a photograph.

You can't expect to take a definitive image in half an hour. It takes days, often years.

The art of photography is all about directing the attention of the viewer.

When I am shooting a film I never think of how I want to shoot something; I simply shoot it.

Every shot is unique, even if it's just a close-up, an insert of your hand. You've got to work with the guy behind the lens to get it right, focus in. Those are critical little nothing things, but you've got to work with the people who are trying to put it down, in order to get it.

When taking a photo, I tend to look for one of the following: depth, symmetry, color or contrast. All of those things catch my eye to the point where I stop dead in my tracks to capture whatever it is that I've seen.

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

I'm no snapshot artist. I make very careful choices always, even if I'm using a 35mm camera.

If I can say one thing for my pictures, it is a certain craftsmanship. A thought which has gone into every angle. There is nothing there without an optical reason.

Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk.

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.

The camera is not the instrument. People are always the instrument.

It's something that I've always been attracted to, that idea of letting everything happen in a single frame.

I love a well composed shot. It doesn't necessarily have to be beautiful, but it must be well composed.