Quotes by
Elliott Erwitt

Quality doesn't mean deep blacks and whatever tonal range. That's not quality, that's a kind of quality. The pictures of Robert Frank might strike someone as being sloppy--the tone range isn't right and things like that--but they're far superior to the pictures of Ansel Adams with regard to quality, because the quality of Ansel Adams, if I may say so, is essentially the quality of a postcard. But the quality of Robert Frank is a quality that has something to do with what he's doing, what his mind is. It's not balancing out the sky to the sand and so forth. It's got to do with intention.

Making pictures is a very simple act. There is no great secret in photography...schools are a bunch of crap. You just need practice and application of what you've learned. My absolute conviction is that if you are working reasonably well the only important thing is to keep shooting...it doesn't matter whether you are making money or not. Keep working, because as you go through the process of working things begin to happen.

Now very often events are set up for photographers ... The weddings are orchestrated about the photographers taking the picture, because if it hasn't been photographed it doesn't really exist.

It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.

Do what the client wants, not what you want.

[Photographer needs:] creativity, style, elegance, wit and craft. [A photojournalist also needs that and] courage, stamina, cunning and luck.

After following the crowd for a while, I'd then go 180 degrees in the exact opposite direction. It always worked for me, but then again, I'm very lucky.

Working myself into a position of total versatility, so that I can do anything I want to do at the time I want to do it. Whether I do it or not is another question.

Balance of light is the problem, not the amount. Balance between shadows and highlights determines where the emphasis goes in the picture...make sure the major light in a picture falls at right angles to the camera.

I wasn't imposing my presence on anyone,..which is very important for a would- be journalist. I stayed back. Always let people be themselves.

A picture should be looked at - not talked about.

I am unspecialized in a very specialized profession. Some commercial clients aren't quite sure how to take me. Some probably think I'm dead because I've been around so long.

The work I care about is terribly simple. I observe, I try to ebtertain, but above all, I want pictures that are emotional.

Something catches your eye, or your interest. You attack it in some way or observe it in some way, and try to put it in some kind of form and take a picture. It's as simple as that.

I don't think you can create luck. You're either lucky or you're not. I don't know if it's really luck or if it's just curiosity. I think the main ingredient, or a main ingredient for photography is curiosity. If you're curious enough and if you get up in the morning and go out and take pictures, you're likely to be more lucky than if you just stay at home.

Being shy is quite useful to a photographer, because it gives you the opportunity of not being shy once you have the field of a camera before you. It protects you from being shy.

When you go out into the field with your camera, wear a jacket with big pockets, LOTS of big pockets.

I dislike landscapes. I only like people, and plastic flowers.

I don't like explosions. I don't mind progress. But digital photography has made every man, woman, child and chimpanzee a photographer of sorts and consequently has numbed down the general quality of photographs....

If your subjects are eternal ... they'll survive. If they're good enough. If they're not dated, they will survive.

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

Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.

There are so many fine photographers who are underrated that it would be unfair to name just one. Look at the New York Times, where the quality of photography has so leaped forward—these are not known photographers, they’re just workaday photographers who take wonderful pictures. Recognition comes as a result of luck, timing and the situation at large.

I like dogs.... They’re sympathetic. They’re nice. They don’t ask for prints.

Good photography is not about zone printing or any other Ansel Adams nonsense. It’s just about seeing. You either see or you don’t see. The rest is academic. Photography is simply a function of noticing things. Nothing more.

[Robert] Capa completely invented himself. He was way ahead of his time, broke all the rules. What an example!

Learn the craft (which is not very hard). Carefully study past work of photographers and classic painters. Look and learn from movies. See where you can fit in as a “commercial” photographer. Commercial: meaning working for others and delivering a product on command. But most of all keep your personal photography as your separate hobby. If you are very good and diligent it just may pay off.

The best things happen when you just happen to be somewhere with a camera.

Everything is there in front of us. If we knew what we were looking for, we’d see the great movements of tomorrow in the miniscule details of today.

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

Photography is pretty simple stuff. You just react to what you see, and take many, many pictures.

Taking pictures of celebrities is exactly like taking pictures of non-celebrities. Compose the photograph properly, try to evoke something special or unique given the available possibilities. Above all do not be intimidated. Remember that even the most exalted celebrities brush their teeth at night before going to bed.

Now very often events are set up for photographers... The weddings are orchestrated about the photographers taking the picture, because if it hasn't been photographed it doesn't really exist.

You can find pictures anywhere. It's simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what's around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy.

It's just seeing - at least the photography I care about. You either see or you don't see. The rest is academic. Anyone can learn how to develop. It's how you organize what you see into a picture.

Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times...I just shoot at what interests me at that moment.

No matter how boring a job, it's a success if he's been able to get one picture for himself.

He [Yousef Karsh] thoroughly researches his subject, knows wife's name, or man's hobby, and uses this information to the hilt. He's the ultimate flatterer.

You have to devote yourself totally to be successful at it.

If you've got no responsibility and don't have to generate a certain amount of cash each month, and can live on a shoestring, and are ambitious enough, then you might have a chance. You can be dedicated but that is no guarantee that you'll make it. I rely on a hunch, little luck, and some cunning.

If you keep your cool, you'll get everything.

To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place.... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.

All the technique in the world doesn’t compensate for the inability to notice.

The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.

I like things that have to do with what is real, elegant, well presented and without excessive style. In other words, just fine observetion.

Photography is a craft. Anyone can learn a craft with normal intelligence and application. To take it beyond the craft is something else. That's when magic comes in. And I don't know that there's any explanation for that.

My first serious camera was a Rolleiflex. I used it for quite some time, until I got tired of the square format which is not really terribly suitable to the kind of pictures that I was interested in. Also it's a camera that you don't use up to the eye but to the stomach, and I always think it's better to look at what you're photographing through your eyes rather than through your stomach.

Good photography is not about 'Zone Printing' or any other Ansel Adams nonsense. It's just about seeing. You either see, or you don't see. The rest is academic. Photography is simply a function of noticing things. Nothing more.

There's a profound difference between the simple non-reflex, direct-viewing camera (such as a range-finder Leica) and a SLR. With a reflex you tend to make the picture in the camera; with the other, you see the picture and then put a frame around it. The RF camera is also faster, quicker to focus, less noisy, and smaller, but these advantages are much less important than the fundamental difference.

Photoshop is useful in many ways but must NEVER be used for the altering of photographs. My assistants and my agency do whatever Photoshop work for me that may be required as it is too complicated for my brain.

You don’t study photography, you just do it.

I don’t believe that photography can change the world, but it can show the world changing.

Dogs are instinctive, they have a memory of the instant, like photography.

I don’t think when I’m taking a photograph. What I love best is spontaneity.

The work I care about is terribly simple. I observe, I try to entertain, but above all I want pictures that are emotional. Little else interests me in photography. Today, so much is being done by unemotional people, or at least it looks that way… I mean, work that’s fascinating and fun and clever and technically brilliant. But if it’s not personal, then it misses what interesting photography is about.

Most photographers are shy. It’s a way out.

I don’t believe that photography can change the world, but it can show the world changing.

What amuses me in life? I don’t know if anything amuses me in particular. What amuses me in life? People I would guess. Landscapes do not amuse me; People do. What people do and how they behave, that’s about it.

The advantage of taking pictures of the famous is that they get published.

Photography is really very simple. The only important thing is to keep shooting. Commercial or fine art, it doesn't matter. Nothing happens when you sit at home.

Success is freedom to do what you feel like doing at the moment and this has been one of my guiding principles throughout my career.

I’m not enthusiastic, I just take pictures.

Well naturally your pictures should be good. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t.