Elliott Erwitt Quotes

One way to break up any kind of tension is good deep breathing.

I have found over the years that the most important way of getting people to relax is self-deprecating humor.

Whenever you're starting a new show, you have these awkward first lunches and meetings that are sort of mandatory, and everybody shows up, but nobody knows each other.

I sometimes find the surface interesting. To say that the mark of a good portrait is whether you get them or get the soul - I don't think this is possible all of the time.

Even someone as photographed and aware of the camera as members of the royal family needs to feel completely comfortable if they are to look their best.

Every night, I have to read a book, so that my mind will stop thinking about things that I stress about.

I personally made a decision many years ago that I wanted to crawl into portraiture because it had a lot of latitude.

The average session takes about one to two hours. It's totally amazing because when a person breathes, they go through one stage of relaxation after another, and every stage releases tension.

I'm a portrait photographer that's used to shooting celebrities, and I usually need time and all kinds of lights and a studio to set up my shots.

If you're feeling blue, lock yourself in a room, stand in front of a mirror, and dance - and laugh at yourself and be sexy. Dance the silliest and ugliest you've ever danced. Make fun of yourself and try to recover your sense of humor.

I like photographing the people I love, the people I admire, the famous, and especially the infamous. My last infamous subject was the extreme right wing French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Nothing is a better icebreaker than a great joke.

When I had photographed Prince William's mother, I brought along a CD of Dalida, a French singer, that we played on set all day to relax everyone. I decided to do the same thing for Catherine and William. The contrast of the contemporary informal music playing in the beautiful rooms with so much history caused a lot of laughter.

You must photograph where you are involved; where you are overwhelmed by what you see before you; where you hold your breath while releasing the shutter, not because you are afraid of jarring the camera, but because you are seeing with your guts wide open to the sweet pain of an image that is part of your life.

My mother had taken me to photographer Paul Hesse, who used some of my pictures on magazine covers.

I start listening to something, or I'm seeing somebody a lot or seeing their art. And then I just really want to make a picture of them.

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

I'm more interested in photographing people who have done something, like writers or directors - even billionaires - as long as I can study them before I photograph them.

I treat the camera like a person - I gaze into it. Photos are a flat thing, and you need to put life into them.

The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.

The interviews have gotten much longer with 'Humans of New York.' When I was first starting, I was just photographing people. And then I went to just kind of including a quote or two. Now when I'm approaching somebody on the street, I'm spending about 30 to 45 minutes with them often.

You will never go wrong with actually photographing process. It's primitive. Humans love to see the bipedal animal in us finish things. We just like it!

If I do a portrait, I know what they can take. If somebody's a sweet, shy person, the photographs will be sweet and shy. Of course, you ask people to do something which they might not have done before, but that's the journey, the fun element.

I feel mindless comedies make you relax - there are times when I come from shooting and watch comedy shows; they really change my mood.

Whenever I do someone's portrait, I'm trying to locate the photo in the lens while reaching into that person psychologically. There's the magic! I don't always achieve it. It's a hit or a miss!