The camera is for us a tool, not a pretty mechanical toy ... people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
A photographer must always work with the greatest respect for his subject and in terms of his own point of view.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A photographer should honor their subject while also staying true to their own perspective.
This quote emphasizes the dual responsibility of a photographer to not only capture the essence and integrity of their subject but also to express their unique viewpoint. It suggests that the relationship between the subject and the photographer is deeply respectful and personal, highlighting the balance between objective representation and subjective interpretation in photography.
Themes
PhotographyRespectPerspectiveSubjectArt
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a photography exhibition to highlight the ethical responsibilities of photographers.
More from Henri Cartier-Bresson
All quotes →The most difficult thing for me is a portrait. You have to try and put your camera between the skin of a person and his shirt.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Photographier: c'est mettre sur la meme ligne de mire la tete, l'oeil et le coeur.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Pictures, regardless of how they are created and recreated, are intended to be looked at. This brings to the forefront not the technology of imaging, which of course is important, but rather what we might call the eyenology (seeing).
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Similar quotes
True alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’.
Arthur RimbaudRead
Literature is born when something in life goes slightly adrift.
Simone De BeauvoirRead
Neurologically, I'm a quadriplegic, so virtually everything about my work has been driven by my learning disabilities, which are quite severe, and my lack of facial recognition, which I'm sure is what drove me to paint portraits in the first place.
Chuck CloseRead
Poetry is rather an approach to things, to life, than it is typographical production.
Joseph BrodskyRead
The origins of poetry are clearly rooted in obscurity, in secretiveness, in incantation, in spells that must at once invoke and protect, tell the secret and keep it.
Mary RuefleRead
I've written only two novels, but they're both long ones, and they each took a decade to write.
Donna TarttRead