Eve Arnold Quotes

I guess I've shot about 40,000 negatives and of these I have about 800 pictures I like.

I started photography more or less by accident when I was already 27. I was taken on as an assistant by a photographer who was a friend of a friend and I very quickly understood the potential of expression in photography.

There's no great mystique to photography. A lot of photographers like to put their hands up to their forehead and tell you how they've suffered and so forth. Well, I just rent a car and drive to the place and take the pictures.

When I was younger I used to be really into photography, and I still am, I just don't really get to do it besides taking my own artists photos and stuff like that.

I've thought of becoming a photographer! To save my talent as a writer.

Photography is my one recreation and I think it should be done well.

I'm an amateur photographer, apart from being a professional one, and I think maybe my amateur pictures are the better ones.

If you have enough craft, you've done your homework and you're practiced. You can then make the photograph you desire.

Whatever it takes to get the image to reach that level is what that photographer needs to do.

I don't care how they think of it. Some of these people are acquiring some very good pictures by a lot of different photographers.

You scientists are the worst photographers in the world and you need the best photographers in the world and I'm the one to do it.

The camera cannot, but the photographer can.

If the guy behind the camera is not good, the pictures are bad. It's still you, and it's the same lines and everything, but it doesn't work.

I am a professional photographer by trade and an amateur photographer by vocation.

It's the easiest thing in the world to do that, to make successful photographs. It's a bore.

I didn't see painters doing paintings of glassware and glass shelves or sand dunes and receding snow fences. Why does that interest photographers and not artists?

The secret of photography is, the camera takes on the character and personality of the handler.

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.

The technique of 35mm photography appears simple. One is beguiled by the quick viewing and operation, and by the very questionable inclination to make many pictures with the hope that some will be good.

I love shooting in New York because I love the city. Ultimately, I like doing it there and the city is important to the story, but it can be hard to shoot where you live too because it is so all-absorbing.

My first priority when taking pictures is to achieve clarity. A good documentary photograph transmits the information of the situation with the utmost fidelity; achieving it means understanding the nuances of lighting and composition, and also remembering to keep the lenses clean and the cameras steady.

You can also see sometimes that the best pictures are the ones where you didn't try so hard, where you were just enjoying the process - and you didn't even know why you were making the picture. It felt right. If someone asked, 'Why are you making this picture?' you probably couldn't describe it very well - and that's why it needs to be a photograph.

Work harder, get closer and be passionate about what you photograph.

To create something to dream about, I need exceptional women, locations and architectures.

If a composer could state in words what being a composer means, he would no longer need to be a composer.