Nigel Barker Quotes

But there is more to a fine photograph than information. We are also seeking to present an image that arouses the curiosity of the viewer or that, best of all, provokes the viewer to think-to ask a question or simply to gaze in thoughtful wonder. We know that photographs inform people. We also know that photographs move people. The photograph that does both is the one we want to see and make. It is the kind of picture that makes you want to pick up your own camera again and go to work.

Art evokes emotion. It doesn't have to be a thing of beauty.

I can tell you what I personally use a camera for. Basically, it is to record a moment. A moment that is vital to give the viewer a sensation of liveliness, sadness, joy and so on.

As for a picture, if it isn't worth a thousand words, the hell with it.

You must photograph where you are involved; where you are overwhelmed by what you see before you.

Is the Mona Lisa an 'accurate' representation of the actual human model for the painting? Who knows? Who cares? It's a great piece of art. It moves us. It makes us wonder, makes us gape - finally makes us look inward at ourselves.

I know that if I were to take ugly photographs, no one would be interested in looking at them.

I never tried to revolutionise photography; I just do what I do and keep my fingers crossed that people will like it.

I tend not to be so attracted to films that force me into an intellectual place over an emotional one.

Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

For me, art has to have two things to really blow me away: a strong concept and drama.

It's far better to shoot a good picture than a good-looking picture.

There are usually three sections of people who like my work. There are those who like them aesthetically. They see beauty in the images. Second, there are those who like the horror aspect, which is by design, and I like that. Third, there are those who are moved by the historical or political nature of them. They want to talk about them.

Slow motion goes one of two ways. It either makes it look really, really cool, or it makes it look really, really bad.

I'm really taken by the fact that my photographs live on somebody's wall.

I don't think it's right to define films as commercial or art house. What's important is that a film evokes a certain emotion when it's being watched.

The cartoon absolutely captures something that acres and acres of copy can't. And even photographs can't.

You can take a good picture of anything. A bad one, too.

Photographers feel guilty that all they do for a living is press a button.

Only a fraction of the camera's possibilities interests me - the marvelous mixture of emotion and geometry, together in a single instant.

There's no particular class of photograph that I think is any better than any other class. I'm always and forever looking for the image that has spirit! I don't give a damn how it got made.

The pictures which do not represent an intense interest cannot expect to create an intense interest.

When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.

...The more a picture has to give, the greater it is.

Paint, not the thing but the effect which it produces.