Photography is for me the simultaneous recognition in a fraction of a second of the significance of an event, as well as of a precise formal organization (i.e. composition) which brings that event to life.

The camera has its own kind of consciousness; in the lens the Garden of Eden itself would become ever so slightly too perfect.

There is a terrible truthfulness about photography that sometimes makes a thing look ridiculous.

A photograph comes into being, as it is seen, all at once.

There was a group of Americans taking photographs. "What barbarians!" said Papa. "They take photographs so that they do not have to look."

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.

I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything.

For half a century photography has been the "art form" of the untalented. Obviously some pictures are more satisfactory than others, but where is credit due? To the designer of the camera? to the finger on the button? to the law of averages?

Pictures are wasted unless the motive power which impelled you to action is strong and stirring.

I have never forgotten a picture that I ever made.