Quotes by
Andre Kertesz

The moment always dictates in my work. What I feel, I do. This is the most important thing for me. Everybody can look, but they don't necessarily see. I never calculate or consider; I see a situation and I know that it's right, even if I have to go back to get the proper lighting.

Mr. Kertesz was known for his drive and enthusiasm. At 90, he produced a portfolio of new pictures and showed it to the photographer Susan May Tell. When she asked him what it was that kept him working, he replied, "I am still hungry."

Technique isn't important. Technique is in the blood. Events and mood are more important than good light and the happening is what is important.

A photograph draws its beauty from the truth with which it is marked. For this very reason I refuse all the tricks of the trade and professional virtuosity which could make me betray my canon. As soon as I find a subject which interests me, I leave it to the lens to record truthfully.

My talent lies in the fact that I cannot touch a camera without expressing myself.

Seeing is not enough; you have to feel what you photograph.

Born with photographic feeling.

I do not document anything, I give an interpretation.

It isn’t the alphabet that’s important. The important thing is what you are writing, what you are expressing. The same thing goes for photography.

The camera is my tool. Through it I give reason to everything around me.

I am always saying that the best photographs are those I never took.

Technique is only the minimum in photography. It’s what one must start with. I believe you should be a perfect technician in order to express yourself as you wish and then you can forget about the technique.

Everything is a subject. Every subject has a rhythm. To feel it is the raison d'être. The photograph is a fixed moment of such a raison d'être, which lives on in itself.

The most valuable things in a life are a man's memories. And they are priceless.

I do what I feel, that's all, I am an ordinary photographer working for his own pleasure. That's all I've ever done.

The moment always dictates in my work. What I feel, I do. This is the most important thing for me, Everybody can look, but they don't necessarily see. I never calculate or consider; I see a situation and I know that it's right, even if I have to go back to get the proper lighting.

If you want to write you should learn the alphabet. You write and write and in the end you hava a beautiful, perfect alphabet. But it isn’t the alphabed that is important. The important thing is what you are writing, what you are expressing. The same thing goes for photography. Photographs can be technically perfect and even beautiful, but they have no expression.

I just walk around, observing the subject from various angles until the picture elements arrange themselves into a composition that pleases my eye.

I am an amateur and intend to remain one my whole life long. I attribute to photography the task of recording the real nature of things, their interior, their life. The photographer’s art is a continuous discovery which requires patience and time. A photograph draws its beauty from the truth with which it’s marked. For this very reason I refuse all the tricks of the trade and professional virtuosity which could make me betray my career. As soon as I find a subject which interests me, I leave it to the lens to record it truthfully. Look at the reporters and at the amateur photographer ! They both have only one goal; to record a memory or a document. And that is pure photography.

I can’t talk about my style. It us kind of difficult for me. I don’t like styles. I only like taking photos and expressing myself through them.

You do not have to imagine things; reality gives you all you need.

Of course a picture can lie, but only if you yourself are not honest or if you don’t have enough control over your subject.

You don’t see the things you photograph, you feel them.

[For me, the camera was] a little notebook, a sketchbook. I photographed things that surrounded me- human things, animals, my home, the shadows, peasants, the life around me. I always photographed what the moment told me.