Quotes by
Peter Henry Emerson

In reality professional photographers are those who have studied one branch of photography thoroughly, and are masters of all its resources and no others. It is not a question of £.s.d., this "professional" and "amateur" question, but a question of knowledge and capacity. An amateur is a dabbler without aim, without knowledge and without capacity, no matter how many of his productions he may sell.

The true photographer...must have his camera ready... and when he sees his model in an unconscious and beautiful pose, he must snap his shutter.

Be true to yourself and individuality will show itself in your work.

No one should take up photography who is not content to work hard and study so that he can take pictures for his own eye only. The artist works to record the beauties of nature, the bagman works to please the public, or for filthy lucre, or for metal medals.

Good art only appeals to the highly cultivated at the first glance, but it gradually grows on the uncultivated or the half cultivated; with bad art the case is otherwise.

Do not mistake sentimentality for sentiment, and sentiment for poetry.

Continual failure is a road to success—if you have the strength to go on.

Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China or Peru; if you cannot find it at your own door, you will never find it.

The charm of nature lies in her mystery and poetry, but no doubt she is never mysterious to a donkey. It is not the apparatus that does the work, but the man who wields it.
When a critic has nothing to tell you save that your pictures are not sharp, be certain he is not very sharp and knows nothing at all about it.
Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or Peru; if you cannot find it at your own door, you will never find it.
Many photographers think they are photographing nature when they are only caricaturing her.

It is not the apparatus that chooses the picture, but the man who wields it.

Hold up to scorn every coxcomb who paints 'artist-photographer' or 'artist' on his door, or stamps it on his mounts.

Do not climb a mast, or sit on the weathercock of a steeple, to photograph a landscape; remember no one will follow you up there to get your point of sight.

Though many painters and sculptors talk glibly of 'going in for photography,' you will find that very few of them can ever make a picture by photography. Most people think they can play tennis, shoot, write novels, and photograph as well as any other person— until they try.

The undeveloped artistic faculty delights in glossy and showy objects and in brightly coloured things. The appreciation of delicate tonality, in monochrome or colour, is the result of high development. The frugivorous ape loves bright colour, and so does the young person of 'culture' and the negress of the West Indies, but Corot delighted only in true and harmonious colouring.

Photography was only confessing its weaknesses when it indulged in the alteration of tonal values, false emphasis to certain areas of the picture, and the use of soft focus and special effects.

I have...I regret it deeply, compared photographs to great works of art, and photographers to great artists. It was rash and thoughtless, and my punishment is having to acknowledge it now... In short, I throw my lot in with those who say that Photography is a very limited art. I deeply regret that I have come to this conclusion...

Each picture requires a special composition and every artist treats each picture originally..

Avoid prettiness—the word looks much like pettiness—and there is but little difference between them.

The value of a picture is not proportionate to the trouble and expense it costs to obtain it, but to the poetry that it contains.

Keep rigidly within the limits of your medium, do not strive for the impossible, and so miss the possible.

Spontaneity is the life of a picture.

People are educated to admire nature through pictures.

Photographic pictures may have one merit which no other pictures can ever have, they can be relied upon as historical records.

Do not mistake sharpness for truth.

Say as much as you can, with as little material as you can.

Remember every photograph you publish goes out for better, for worse, to raise you up or pull you down.

Do not call yourself an 'artist-photographer' and make 'artist-painters' and 'artist-sculptors' laugh; call yourself a photographer and wait for artists to call you brother.

Many photographers think they are photographing nature when they are only caricaturing her.

The chief merit of most photographs is their diagrammatic accuracy, as it is their chief vice. If you decide on taking a picture, let nothing stop you, even if you should have to stand by your tripod for a day.