Ain’t that the truth!
A couple of years back I was looking for a quote about portrait photography, probably for a presentation I was working on. Anyway, I collected a whole bunch of quotes about all sorts of photographic genres, but mostly portraiture and here are a few along with why they mean something to me.
What do you think? Got any quotes, just in general actually, that you like, that really mean something to you? Let me know in the comments😀
“Unless you photograph what you love, you’re not going to make good art”
I love this one and I think it is absolutely right on the button.
I can make a photograph of a landscape or a still life but, it is probably not going to be terribly good. That is because I don’t really like taking landscape photographs.
That doesn’t mean, for a moment, that I don’t like looking at landscapes, because I do, very much, just not mine! Mine are rubbish!
I strongly believe that Sally Mann is absolutely right: you have to love what you photograph to stand a chance of making good art. What is ‘good art’? Well, that’s probably a whole book, not just a bit of a blog!
“A lot of photographers think that if they buy a better camera they’ll be able to take better photographs. A better camera won’t do a thing for you if you don’t have anything in your head or in your heart.”
I have known a few ‘photographers’ who are very much of the ‘my lens is better than your lens’ brigade! Even ‘my tripod is better than yours’ (why? Has it got more legs?!!!)
Yes, I grant you, a decent camera will give you a better chance to capture a technically better image, but as Arnold Newman says, without your head and, in my opinion, your heart, you won’t get a really good image. In many ways, this quote links to Sally Mann’s too!
“My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain.”
Now, Helmut Newton has been a long time favourite photographer of mine. I certainly don’t like everything he’s done, but I do like a lot, like very much indeed.
I think this is quite a fun quote and also very true. He’s talking about the viewers of his photographs: he’s using his images to seduce, amuse and entertain those who are looking at the images. I think, in my own way, I probably do the same 😊
“My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.”
I love Richard Avedon’s portraits. This quote is certainly very telling for me. I carefully plan almost all of my shoots, in quite some detail: who and where I’ll shoot, wardrobe, look, posing. So yes, my photographs are certainly as much about me as they are of the subject. Are they more about me than the subject? Maybe they are, but maybe only 60:40, sometimes 70:30 but not entirely me. I did try the 100% me on some early shoots, not letting the model have any input at all and the results were simply not as good as I would have liked. I quickly discovered that to get the best result, you have to allow the subject to become a part of the shoot, not just as a statue as it were.
“It is more important to click with people than it is to click the shutter.”
If you are a portrait photographer, or indeed any photographer who specialises in people, then this HAS to be the case. If your subject doesn’t like you, then you probably won’t get a great photo of them.
I shoot mostly with models and have shot with all of them several times. I guess if we didn’t get on, they’d probably say “No thanks” when I contact them for a second time (or maybe they’re just being polite? 😉 )
One of the simplest ways of ‘clicking with people’ is simply to show them respect. I’ve come across a few photographers (all male!) who seem to think that they’re so good at what they do (and they aren’t!) that they don’t have to respect who they’re shooting with. That is not the way to go chaps, not the way at all!
“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”
Oh, controversial!
What about the rule of thirds? What about groups of three? What about leading lines? What about triangles? What about including something red? What about not having figures walking out of an image? What about featureless whites and blacks for that matter? And the list goes on…and on!
They aren’t rules. If you must use them, then do so more as guidelines than rules. As the great Bill Brandt says: “Photography is not a sport, it has no rules. Everything must be dared and tried.”
Absolutely Bill, I’m with you all the way! And Ansel knew a thing or two about getting a great image, so I guess we should listen to what he says!
Take photographs that YOU like – full stop. Obviously not if you’re working to a client’s brief, but you know what I mean. They should be for you, so make them for you. If you want a sloping horizon, then have one. If you want lens flare, then have it. They’re your images – make them for you, no one else 😊
“Photography is 10% inspiration and 90% moving furniture.”
I’m actually not sure if this is Helmut Newton as I’ve seen this quote (and some very similar ones) attributed to all sorts of people. Be that as it may - it is still true, very true! At least, it is for portrait photography😆
And it isn’t just furniture either: lights, modifiers, ladders, backgrounds too. And also, if like me you like to shoot from different angles, there is lying down, crouching, kneeling, standing, climbing ladders. Who needs a gym membership when you’re a portrait photographer?!
I know that I’ve done a studio shoot the day after - and not just because my hard drive is now wheezing under another 400 shots: I ache all over! Yes, I’m old, dreadfully unfit, overweight and smoke like a train but I’m sure that hasn’t got anything to do with it🤣🤣🤣