Sam Abell Quotes

I'm a very, very basic photographer. The main strength of my pictures, I guess, is the mood and feel I get out of the people that I meet. But technically I don't think I'm very advanced. That never interested me.

I have yet to see a fine photograph which is not a good document.

A camera alone does not make a picture. To make a picture you need a camera, a photographer and above all a subject. It is the subject that determines the interest of the photograph.

There are particular images that I like. Allegro is composed of a series of still life photographs that has been put to speed. There is so much care that has gone into the composition of the cinematography.

You want to make the photograph work in every way possible. Doesn't matter where it is in the world.

Being a photographer is like listening to music. If you have a camera, by just living your life you're bound to find some things that are worth taking a picture of. You don't have to be an audiophile to have taste in music. It happens through osmosis.

I always say I make pictures rather than take pictures.

The landscape is like being there with a powerful personality and I'm searching for just the right angles to make that portrait come across as meaningfully as possible.

I want to photograph what I see and put it in a dramatic context. I'm an actor and a writer, and I want to tell these stories and present these shapes, colors and movements as I see them, as I see them serve a narrative. As I see that narrative serve an audience. That's what I want to do.

'The Gardener' is more than a marvellous collection of images by a master photographer.

Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.

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.

In the world of photography, you get to share a captured moment with other people.

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.

Sometimes I'm amazed by how much you can do as a photographer.

I love photography myself.

There's one right place to put the camera. I'm a big believer in that. You'd think you could put it anywhere. Nope.

The camera's a ballpoint pen, an imbecile; it's not worth anything if you don't have anything to say.

Sometimes I think I prefer the storyteller in [Roman Vishniac] to the photographer. But aren't they one and the same?

The true content of a photograph is invisible, for it derives from a play, not with form, but with time.

I have been a photographer all my life....and have made photographs of many things and for many reasons. But one thing that becomes more and more apparent is that I am simply only as good as my next photograph. That's the one that counts the most....For this reason I find it a delight to face a new day, and to develop that new roll of film. It's a great way to live.

Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.

A photograph can look anyway. It just depends basically on what you photograph.

I have no interest in being famous. I just want to make famous photographs.

The thing about photography is, some people surround themselves with extremely strong subject matter. And unless you're a moron, you're going to get a really strong photograph.