Elliott Erwitt Quotes

I'm a documentary photographer. That's what I've always wanted to be; that's where my heart and soul is.

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality, and eventually in one's own.

Most of the photographs people take with their cameraphones are of little value in terms of documentary.

I remember the first time I went out on the street to shoot pictures. I was in downtown Philadelphia, and I just took a walk and started making contact with people and photographing them, and I thought, 'I love this. This is what I want to do forever.' There was never another question.

I knew from the first moment I picked up a camera, on my first school assignment, what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was going to find a way to travel the world and tell the stories of the people I met through photographs.

I realize that I had the best of serious picture journalism.

To see, and to show, is the mission now undertaken by Life.

In school I was in the dark room all the time, and I've always collected stray photographs; there's a great deal of memory in them.

I think a lot of times, especially for certain stories, photographers travel together for safety reasons, and they also invariably cross paths. But you could have 10 photographers shooting together in the same spot but capturing different images.

Each time I arrived in a new city, I'd get lost in the streets and photograph everything that looked interesting, taking nearly a thousand photographs every day. After each day of shooting, I'd select 30 or 40 of my favorite photographs and post them on Facebook. I named the albums after my first impression of each city.

The most powerful weapon in the world, as far as I'm concerned, is the camera.

I'm always taking behind-the-scenes photos and stuff.

I became obsessed with the storytelling of photography and going on little adventures.

I've always thought photography is not so much of an art form but a way of communicating and passing on information.

My job is very simply that of a photojournalist. I want to stop people's eye on the page, I want to move the viewer to laughter, to sadness, sometimes to wince - not to impress other photographers.

You know, a documentary is only interesting once in a while. If you look at a whole book of Dorothea [Lange]'s where she has row after row of people bending over and digging out carrots - that can be very tedious. And so it's only once in a while that something happens that is worth doing.

You can go into all sorts of situations with a camera and people will think they should serve it.

I grew up looking at National Geographic. I always wondered who was taking the photos and how.

The more you Snapchat, the more you take pictures, it makes you want to have a better party because you want better Snapchats, you want better pictures.

Creating films and photographs through situations that few others could experience is my life's inspiration.

As a photographer, I don't really have a view of the world in general. Someone taking pictures for 'National Geographic' might. Each of us works to our full capacity when we're in the midst of a shoot. Each of us finds our own level of intensity, and that's the fun of it.

Selfies are one of those things I generally take but never post. It's more to remember the moment or what I'm doing.

To me documentary photography means making a picture so that the viewer doesn’t think about the man who made the picture. At its esthetic core is very old tradition in art: naturalism. And its purpose is to document all facets of social relationships.

Magnum photographers were meant to go out as a crusade ... to places like famine and war and ... I went out and went round the corner to the local supermarket because this to me is the front line.

We grew up with a camera in front of us.