Photojournalist Quotes

A picture can express a universal humanism, or simply reveal a delicate and poignant truth by exposing a slice of life that might otherwise pass unnoticed.

If you want to be a photographer, first leave home

My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.

The pain of life overrides the joy to the point that joy does not exist.

What matters most is that each picture stands on its own with its own place and feeling.

The photograph is an undeniably powerful medium.

Free from the constraints of language, and harnessing the unique qualities of a single moment frozen in time.

I think life is too short not to be doing something which you really believe in.

In our contemporary society, one so over-inundated with imagery, it is easy to overlook the power of a single frame to change the way we look at the world, or rally disparate hearts to a single cause. Yet, ours is a society shaped by this very phenomenon.

Brotherhood means laying down your life for somebody, really willing to sacrifice yourself for somebody else.

I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony.

The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.

A still photograph is something which you can always go back to.

You can put it on your wall and look at it again and again. Because it is that frozen moment. I think it tends to burn into your psyche. It becomes ingrained in your mind. A powerful picture becomes iconic of a place or a time or a situation.

In India in particular, where millions have no home but the streets, virtually every life event is carried out in public: prayer, eating, sleeping, nursing, crude dentistry, even bodily functions. In the secular West, where nothing is sacred, everything seems hidden; yet in Asia, where nothing is hidden, everything is sacred.

I only use a camera like I use a toothbrush. It does the job.

The ability to keep things in perspective is very important for a journalist.

In a tense situation you need the ability to be there, yet somehow step aside; to keep a cool head and keep working without getting frustrated.

For me, the strength of photography lies in its ability to evoke humanity.

If war is an attempt to negate humanity, then photography can be perceived as the opposite of war.

There are ways to minimize the risk if you are a woman working in the Middle East: You can dress modestly, wear the hijab, cover your head, always travel with a man.

The real truth of life is on the streets.

Photograph the daily lives of people, and how they exist, and how they fight for space and time and pleasure.

Photography's a case of keeping all the pores of the skin open, as well as the eyes. A lot of photographers today think that by putting on the uniform, the fishing vest, and all the Nikons, that that makes them a photographer. But it doesn't. It's not just seeing. It's feeling.

Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling.

If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you're never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.

You cannot walk on the water of hunger, misery, and death. You have to wade through to record them.

... we are there with our cameras to record reality. Once we start modifying that which exists, we are robbing photography of its most valuable attribute.

Sometimes it felt like I was carrying pieces of human flesh back home with me, not negatives. It's as if you are carrying the suffering of the people you have photographed.

There's always a threat surrounding the things you love

I don't consider myself a politician or a hero.

I'm a messenger. If Cambodia is to survive, she needs many voices.

I became a photographer in order to be a war photographer, and a photographer involved in what I thought were critical social issues. From the very beginning this was my goal.

You are never freer than in that moment when you decide to expose yourself to sniper fire.

Even if not a single picture is never published, they exist.

And that means that we are recording the history of the human race. If that's all your doing, it still a very very worth while profession to be involved in.

People believe pictures. It's a photograph that's in your passport, not a painting. Now, George Bernard Shaw said, 'I would exchange every painting of Christ for one snapshot.' That's what the power of photography is.

Part of my life is saving life.

Together we can prevent genocide from happening again.

Together we can make a better future for our children.

The first picture of his I ever saw was during a lecture at the Rhyl camera club. I was 16 and the speaker was Emrys Jones. He projected the picture upside down. Deliberately, to disregard the subject matter to reveal the composition. It's a lesson I've never forgotten.

When I’m taking a picture of Aya Sofia, what counts is the person passing by who stands for life

It is very hard to say where you're going until you get there.

That kind of thing is based very much on instinct. As a photographer, one of the most important lessons I have learnt is that you have to learn to listen to and trust your own instinct. It has helped to guide me - this far at least.

I want to save lives, including my own, but Cambodians believe we just rent this body. It is just a house for the spirit, and if the house is full of termites, it is time to leave.

I don't want to die for a few pictures.

I want to live for every sunrise I can clap my eyes on; I want to see my family get older; I want to see the world try and get a bit more peaceful and understanding, which unfortunately I don't think I'll ever see.

Journalists dedicate their lives to covering war - they make many personal sacrifices, and it's not something that's gender-based. In a place like Libya where there's heavy fighting, it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman.

It's a lot more than clicking the shutter.

..it's the ideas, it's the visual voice, it's the telling the story, it's kind of going beyond that initial thing that just means you happened to be there at the right time.

The greatest statesmen, philosophers, humanitarians .

.. have not been able to put an end to war. Why place that demand on photography?

Photography has been very, very generous to me, but at the same time has damaged me.

I feel shabby - because I've made a name, quite a good name, out of photography.

And I still find myself asking the same questions: Who am I? What am I supposed to be? What have I done?

I just pray. And I'm not very religious at all - I was raised Catholic, but probably haven't gone to church since my Holy Communion, when I was about 6 or 7.

People depend on the Open Internet to connect and communicate with each other freely. Voters need it to inform themselves before casting ballots. Without prompt corrective action by the Commission to reclassify broadband, this awful ruling will serve as a sorry memorial to the corporate abrogation of free speech.

I found that the camera was a comforting companion.

It opened up new worlds, and gave me access to people's most intimate moments. I discovered the privilege of seeing life in all its complexity, the thrill of learning something new every day. When I was behind a camera, it was the only place in the world I wanted to be.

Photojournalists know the horrors of war can only be exposed at close range. Kodak Film.

Many people in this world do jobs that are dangerous and where their life is at risk and they feel that there is some kind of value to their job I guess that's how I feel about what I do. There is a social function to documentary photography that is very important and it requires people to take risks.

Real photography is a wonderfully inclusive, democratic medium, whereas art photography is more often a private pursuit by conmen.

I've worked for over 11 years in the Muslim world, and the one thing that I feel like I've learned - who's to say if it's true or not true, it's just my experience - is that men don't like to see really strong, aggressive women in that area of the world.

Unfortunately, the world continues, history continues to produce tragedies.

And it is very important that they be documented in a humane way, in a compelling way.

I don't believe there's any such thing as objective reality. It's only reality as we experience it.

If there is something occurring that is so bad that it could be considered a crime against humanity, it has to be transmitted with anguish, with pain, and create an impact in people - upset them, shake them up, wake them out of their everyday routine.