138 Black And White Photography Quotes

Following is our list of black and white photography quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about black-and-white.

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Famous Black And White Photography Quotes

Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. — Robert Frank

I believe that the essence of photography is black and white. Color is but a deviance. — Sarah Moon

When you photograph people in color you photograph their clothes. When you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their soul! — Ted Grant

Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive. — Elliott Erwitt

When painters feel the need to make a shift toward self-discovery, they turn to black and white for a time. — Barnett Newman

Photography - the new, rapid, concrete reflector of the world - should surely undertake to show the world from all vantage points, and to develop people's capacity to see from all sides. (1928) — Alexander Rodchenko

No color will ever be brighter for me than black and white. - Alessandro Del Piero

No color will ever be brighter for me than black and white. — Alessandro Del Piero

Life is in color, but black and white is more realistic. — Samuel Fuller

Photography can light-up darkness and expose ignorance. - Lewis Hine

Photography can light-up darkness and expose ignorance. — Lewis Hine

Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but black and white films still hold an affectionate place in my heart; they have an incomparable mystique and mood. — Ginger Rogers

If I could have had my own way, I would have confined myself to black and white. — Edgar Degas

Only photography has been able to divide human life into a series of moments, each of them has the value of a complete existence. — Eadweard Muybridge

Landscapes, heads and naked women are called artistic photography, while photographs of current events are called press photography. — Alexander Rodchenko

Photography is a universal language, transcending the boundaries of race, politics, and nationality. — Arthur Rothstein

Black and white can show how something is. Color adds how it is, imbued with temperatures and humidities of experience. — Peter Schjeldahl

Short Black And White Photography Quotes

  • Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness. — Yousuf Karsh
  • Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past. — Berenice Abbott
  • Photography is the recording of strangeness and beauty with beguiling precision. — Sebastian Smee
  • Photography is the recording of strangeness and beauty with beguiling precision. — Sebastian Smeey
  • The hardest thing in photography is to create a simple image. — Anne Geddes
  • Every photograph is a battle of form versus content. — Garry Winogrand
  • Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still. — Dorothea Lange
  • I like form and shape and strength in pictures. — Herb Ritts
  • In black and white you suggest, in color you state. — Paul Outerbridge
  • Photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world. — Bruno Barbey

Black And White Photography Image Quotes

Black and white photography quote Life is like a piano, the white keys represent happiness and the black shows sadness, but as you go
Life is like a piano, the white keys represent happiness and the black shows sadness, but as you go through life's journey, remember that the black keys also makes music.

Black And White Quotes

Our clear goal must be the advancement of the white race and separation of the white and black races. This goal must include freeing of the American media and government from subservient Jewish interests. — David Duke

If white privilege is a thing, why are people working so hard to be black? All of the award shows and cultural events favor black culture. — Milo Yiannopoulos

A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the Earth And every man is free. — Langston Hughes

Black and white photography quote Photography is about capturing souls, not smiles.
Photography is about capturing souls, not smiles.

It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart and head. — Henri Cartier-Bresson

I am the colour red, in a world of black and white and if you value your ability to breathe... Don't get too close. — Bray Wyatt

Finally, let understand that when we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand together for justice, we win. When black, white and Hispanic people stand together for justice, we win. — Bernie Sanders

Black and white photography quote A photograph is the  pause button of life.
A photograph is the pause button of life.

Black people know what white people mean when they say “law and order”. — Fannie Lou Hamer

The material of typography is the black, and it is the designer’s task with the help of this black to capture space, to create harmonious whites inside the letters as well as between them. — Adrian Frutiger

The idea of 'talking white,' a lot of people grew up around that, just the idea that if you speak with proper diction and come off as educated that it's not black and that it's actually anti-black and should be considered only something that white people would do. — Chance the Rapper

The tendency to conformity in our society is so strong that reasonably intelligent and well-meaning young people are willing to call white black. This is a matter of concern. It raises questions about our ways of education and about the values that guide our conduct. — Solomon Asch

Black-and-white Quotes

I asked the Zebra, are you black with white stripes? Or white with black stripes? And the zebra asked me, Are you good with bad habits? Or are you bad with good habits? — Shel Silverstein

We have a vision of South Africa in which black and white shall live and work together as equals in conditions of peace and prosperity. — Oliver Tambo

Everytime I look at a zebra, I can't figure out whether it's black with white stripes or white with black stripes, and that frustrates me. — Jodi Picoult

Black and white photography quote Escape from the black cloud that surrounds you. Then you will see your own light as radiant as the f
Escape from the black cloud that surrounds you. Then you will see your own light as radiant as the full moon.

Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man. — Abraham Lincoln

There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. — Richard M. Nixon

We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It's our basic human right. — Aretha Franklin

Black and white photography quote Life is like photography we develop from the negatives.
Life is like photography we develop from the negatives.

Uh, homes, we are what we are. Black, white, Brown, yellow. Point is don't be ashamed of who you are, man. You wanna call it sterotyping. Hey, This is me, Órale vato, this is who I am. Take me or leave me. You don't like me? Turn around and look the other way. Its that simple. — Eddie Guerrero

My philosophy is such that I am not going to vote against the oppressed. I have been oppressed, and so I am always going to have avote for the oppressed, regardless of whether that oppressed is black or white or yellow or the people of the Middle East, or what. I have that feeling. — Septima Poinsette Clark

A lot of people, black, white, mexican, young or old, fat or skinny have a problem being true to they self. They have a problem looking in the mirror and looking directly into their own souls. Only reason I am who I am today is because I can look directly into my face and find my soul — Tupac Shakur

Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society. — Angela Davis

Color Photography Quotes

I'm not an abstractionist. I'm not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on. — Mark Rothko

Color in a picture is like enthusiasm in life. — Vincent Van Gogh

One very important difference between color and monochromatic photography is this: in black and white you suggest; in color you state. Much can be implied by suggestion, but statement demands certainty... absolute certainty. — Paul Outerbridge

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. - Aaron Siskind

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. — Aaron Siskind

Seeing the Earth for the first time in orbit, you will be surprised that you never noticed the quality and texture of colors. — Peggy Whitson

Photography has always been associated with death. Reality is colorful, yet early photography always took the color out of reality and made it black-and-white. Color is life; black-and-white is death. There was a ghost hidden in the invention of photography. — Nobuyoshi Araki

Black and white photography quote Life is like photography, you use the negatives to develop
Life is like photography, you use the negatives to develop

Only in black and white can I see the design and textures. I don't consider color photography art. Black and white is an interpretation. Color is a duplication. — Clyde Butcher

My clothes are great for a honeymoon: They’re light and sexy, colorful and pretty, and not expensive. — Diane Von Furstenberg

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face. — Edward Steichen

My philosophy, like color television, is all there in black and white. — Graham Chapman

Photography Quotes

A window covered with raindrops interests me more than a photograph of a famous person. — Saul Leiter

Life is like photography. You need the negatives to develop. - Ziad K. Abdelnour

Life is like photography. You need the negatives to develop. — Ziad K. Abdelnour

I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical. - Trent Parke

I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical. — Trent Parke

Black and white photography quote We're just trying to find some color in this black and white world
We're just trying to find some color in this black and white world

You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either. — Galen Rowell

You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved. — Ansel Adams

I like to make people a little uncomfortable. It encourages them to examine who they are and why they think the way they do. — Sally Mann

Black and white photography quote I can get obsessed by anything if I look at it long enough. That's the curse of being a photographer
I can get obsessed by anything if I look at it long enough. That's the curse of being a photographer.

The biggest cliche in Photography is Sunrise and Sunset. — Catherine Opie

The body says what words cannot. — Martha Graham

Nothing is ever the same twice because everything is always gone forever, and yet each moment has infinite photographic possibilities. — Michael Kenna

I don't have a burning desire to go out and document anything. It just happens when it happens. It's not a conscious effort, nor is it a struggle. Wouldn't do it if it was. The idea of the suffering artist has never appealed to me. Being here is suffering enough. — William Eggleston

Camera And Photography Quotes

If I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time. - Robert Doisneau

If I knew how to take a good photograph, I'd do it every time. — Robert Doisneau

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

The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don't have to explain things with words. — Elliott Erwitt

Black and white photography quote I dont care if you're black, white, short, tall, skinny, rich   or poor. If you respect me I'll resp
I dont care if you're black, white, short, tall, skinny, rich or poor. If you respect me I'll respect you

You have a 45mm automatic pistol on your lap, and I have a 35mm camera on my lap, and my weapon is just as powerful as yours. (To Black Panther militant Eldridge Cleaver) — Gordon Parks

There is 3 key things for good photography: the camera,lighting and... Photoshop — Tyra Banks

For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity. — Henri Cartier-Bresson

Black and white photography quote Black-and-white always looks modern, whatever that word means.
Black-and-white always looks modern, whatever that word means.

It seems positively unnatural to travel without taking a camera along... The very activity of taking pictures is soothing and assuages general feelings of disorientation that are likely to be exacerbated by travel. — Susan Sontag

The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it! - Ansel Adams

The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it! — Ansel Adams

Photography is a very subtle thing. You must let the camera take you by the hand, as it were, and lead you into your subject. — Margaret Bourke-White

A photograph is the illusion of a literal description of how the camera 'saw' a piece of time and space. — Garry Winogrand

Photography And Light Quotes

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography. — George Eastman

Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second. — Marc Riboud

It's about finding meaning through light. I'm always interested in tensions. A primary one is the collision between the familiar and the strange. — Gregory Crewdson

Black and white photography quote If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.

I think people just see cinematography as being about photography and innovative shots and beautiful lighting. We all want our movies to look great visually, to be beguiling and enticing, but I think that what really defines a great cinematographer is one who loves story. — Seamus McGarvey

To me if there's an achievement to lighting and photography in a film it's because nothing stands out, it all works as a piece. And you feel that these actors are in this situation and the audience is not thrown by a pretty picture or by bad lighting. — Roger Deakins

If you want something to look interesting, don’t light all of it. — John Loengard

Now, to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravity before going for a walk. — Edward Weston

Photography is thus brought within reach of every human being who desires to preserve a record of what he sees… and enables the fortunate possessor to go back by the light of his own fireside to scenes which would otherwise fade from memory and be lost. — George Eastman

I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are. — Diane Von Furstenberg

I find it some of the hardest photography and the most challenging photography I've ever done. It's a real challenge to work with the natural features and the natural light. — Galen Rowell

Art Photography Quotes

The desire to discover, the desire to move, to capture the flavor, three concepts that describe the art of photography. — Helmut Newton

Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow. — Imogen Cunningham

Art can no longer be merely a mirror, it must act as the organizer of the people's consciousness... No form of representation is so readily comprehensible to the masses as photography. — El Lissitzky

The observer must learn to look at the picture as a graphic representation of a mood and not as a representation of objects. — Wassily Kandinsky

To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. — Elliott Erwitt

Nowadays, with digital printing, it's so easy to make everything perfect, which is not always a good idea. Sometimes the mistakes are really what make a piece. — Cindy Sherman

I want to take some quite incredible photographs that have never been taken before... pictures which are simple and complex at the same time, which will amaze and overwhelm people ... I must achieve this so that photography can begin to be considered a form of art. — Alexander Rodchenko

I can get obsessed by anything if i look at it long enough. That's the curse of being a photographer. — Irving Penn

Art is all about doing what you shouldn't. — Nobuyoshi Araki

The pictures are there, and you just take them. — Robert Capa

Photography And Film Quotes

The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed. — Anne Geddes

A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective. — Irving Penn

The important thing is not the camera but the eye. — Alfred Eisenstaedt

Ultimately photography is about who you are. It's the truth in relation to yourself. And seeking truth becomes a habit. — Leonard Freed

The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. — Richard Avedon

Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times...I just shoot at what interests me at that moment. — Elliott Erwitt

... the reason we think that computer graphics technology has succeeded in faking reality is that we, over the course of the last hundred and fifty years, have come to accept the image of photography and film as reality. — Lev Manovich

I was drawn to photography as an extension of film, and the beauty of film is that it's a sensuous, fetishistic medium. — Anton Yelchin

I do photography and I studied film at school. So I've always really enjoyed that and I've got an eye for camera angles I guess. I've never taken that into filming wildlife. — Asa Butterfield

You don't make a photograph just with a camera — Ansel Adams

People Writing About Black And White Photography

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Alexander Rodchenko

Alexander Rodchenko
quotes on art, life and education

15 812
Read quotes by Robert Frank

Robert Frank

10 173
Read quotes by Sarah Moon

Sarah Moon
quotes on love, life and education

12 124
Read quotes by Elliott Erwitt

Elliott Erwitt
quotes on photography

67 491
Read quotes by Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman
quotes on art, painting and artwork

19 206
Read quotes by Alessandro Del Piero

Alessandro Del Piero
quotes on life, leadership and culture

14 298

More Black And White Photography Quotes

Be yourself. I much prefer seeing something, even it is clumsy, that doesn't look like somebody else's work. — William Klein

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. — Arnold Newman

The eye should learn to listen before it looks. — Robert Frank

Not only does a lens distort forms, but the ordinary plate makes an unholy mess of colour in its tone relations. Yellow becomes black, and blue white. Black sunflowers against a white sky - what a travesty! — Walter J. Phillips

Black-and-white photography, which I was doing in the very early days, was essentially called art photography and usually consisted of landscapes by people like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. But photographs by people like Adams didn't interest me. — William Eggleston

In black and white there are more colors than color photography, because you are not blocked by any colors so you can use your experiences, your knowledge, and your fantasy, to put colors into black and white. — Anders Petersen

What the human eye sees is an illusion of what is real. The black and white image transforms illusions into another reality. — Ruth Bernhard

In the end, the only heritage we have is our planet, and I have decided to go to the most pristine places on the planet and photograph them in the most honest way I know, with my point of view, and of course it is in black and white, because it is the only thing I know how to do. — Sebastiao Salgado

To some extent, the cult surrounding black-and-white photography is based on nostalgia. — Rene Burri

The first thing I do is take Polaroids of the sitter - 10 or 12 color Polaroids and eight or 10 black-and whites. — Chuck Close

One teacher told me that my work belonged in the trash. That day I ran out of the classroom and ended up in the library, where there happened to be a black and white photography exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg's photographs of the streets of New York. The subject of his photos were exactly what I was painting about. — Jose Parla

...one sees differently with color photography than black-and-white... in short, visualization must be modified by the specific nature of the equipment and materials being used. — Ansel Adams

I am inspired by great food, theater, books, the beach, black-and-white photography, and great vocalists, like Dianne Reeves, Alice Smith, and Shirley Horn. I am inspired by my mentor Diana Castle, who is guiding me towards a truth and honesty in my life and work that I have always longed for. — Erica Tazel

The Latin American photographer has the possibility, and the means, for naming the things of our world, for demonstrating that there is another kind of beauty, that the faces of the First World are not the only ones. These Indian, black, plundered white and mestizo faces are the first element defining the demographic content of our photography. — Edmundo Desnoes

Black and white photography is truly quite a 'departure from reality', and the transition from one aspect of visual magic to another was not as complete as many imagine. — Ansel Adams

The prejudice many photographers have against colour photography comes from not thinking of colour as form. You can say things with colour that can't be said in black and white... Those who say that colour will eventually replace black and white are talking nonsense. The two do not compete with each other. They are different means to different ends. — Edward Weston

I have been heavily criticized in the past at magazines for my black-and-white photography and the aggressive punch - I prefer to call it strong emotion - to the pictures. When everything is virtually disposable I feel these pictures really stand out. — Max Vadukul

In fact, I probably learned more about photography from studying black-and-white photography in those magazines [Look Magazine and LIFE Magazine] than I did from watching movies here. That's the truth. — Vilmos Zsigmond

I just get the will to do it. I don’t plan a photograph in advance… I work by impulse. No philosophy. No ideas. Not by the head but by the eyes. Eventually inspiration comes-instinct is the same as inspiration, and eventually it comes. — Manuel Alvarez Bravo

...everything looks worse in black and white. — Paul Simon

Some have said that if you take a great picture in color and take away the color, you'll have a great black-and-white picture. But if you're shooting something about color and you take away the color, you'll have nothing. — Jay Maisel

I photographed the entire thing in color because to photograph it in black and white would be to keep it as a tragedy. Because there is a tragic element to photographing, in this case not war, but the collapse. It was just destruction. — Joel Meyerowitz

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