Quotes by
Fred Herzog

I was aware I was taking art. That’s the conceit of young people. I knew that what I am doing is not only unique, but that someday I’m going to unpack that and shock people with it.

Only a few people can see but most people don’t even look.

Photographic finesse has its place, but it can also get in the way. I was trying to show vitality. The pictures are about content, and more content. And if there is no content, take no picture.

All the good pictures that didn’t turn out good, it’s because of the background or because the light comes from one side or some other technical glitch.

You know, what we put into our pictures is not a smart idea. What we put into our pictures is our whole life and our whole intellectual discourse. Everything we know and everything we have done and everything that’s in our history goes into every single picture we take.

Many gestures disappear in an instant, but a posed picture doesn’t look real. You must not deprive people of their real body language. That is why I shoot from the hip. I don’t raise the camera up to my face. I don’t ask for permission. I never talk about it with them first.

Timing in photography is almost everything. You have to pay attention to where the light comes from, you have to pay attention to your background.

Take street pictures because it hones your instincts for speed and for quick composition. But above all what you bring in your mind to the scene is what makes your picture.

I take pride in saying these are all how we looked, not how we wanted to look, or staged. You cannot stage pictures. That is something I have many many times defended. People say ‘Well you can stage that.’ I say ‘No you cannot, and I can prove it to you.’ Many times over I’ve taken a second shot after [some] kids have seen me, and nothing. It’s a different picture.

When people see you, the picture's gone for good. You cannot repeat it. Once people have noticed you, you have to give up. That's it. You blew it.

Cameras today are not made by photographers, they are made by geeks. And geeks don’t take pictures.