Photographers speak...

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer. Ansel Adams

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

The negative is the equivalent of the composer's score, and the print the performance. Ansel Adams

A good photograph is knowing where to stand. Ansel Adams

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter. Ansel Adams

A photograph is usually looked at--seldom looked into. Ansel Adams

It is part of the photographer’s job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time or of the traveler who enters a strange country. Bill Brandt

On seeing my subject I must of course have an exact idea of the effect I want to produce. This determines the point of view from which I take the picture. Bill Brandt

By temperament I am not unduly excitable and certainly not trigger-happy. I think twice before I shoot and very often do not shoot at all. By professional standards I do not waste a lot of film; but by the standards of many of my colleagues I probably miss quite a few of my opportunities. Bill Brandt

If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough. Robert Capa

Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important. Henri Cartier-Bresson

What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm--the relationship between shapes and values. Henri Cartier-Bresson

To take photographs means to recognize--simultaneously and within a fraction of a second--both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one's head, one's eye and one's heart on the same axis. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Photography is nothing--it's life that interests me. Henri Cartier-Bresson

Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst. Henri Cartier-Bresson

It is by great economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression. One must always take photos with the greatest respect for the subject and for oneself. Henri Cartier-Bresson