Elliott Erwitt Quotes

My 'work' is about seeing not about ideas.

Photography is pretty simple stuff. You just react to what you see, and take many, many pictures.

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

I dislike landscapes. I only like people, and plastic flowers.

After following the crowd for a while, I'd then go 180 degrees in the exact opposite direction. It always worked for me.

When I get up in the morning I brush my teeth and go about my business, and if I am going anywhere interesting I take my camera along.

Be sure to take the lens cap off before photographing.

All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice.

Photography is simply a function of noticing things.

I appreciate simplicity, true beauty that lasts over time, and a little wit and eclecticism that make life more fun.

You don't study photography, you just do it.

Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.

A visual sense is something you either have or you don't.

My life has been quite interesting professionally.

I've been around so long, most editors think I'm dead.

I enjoy nothing more than spending time with my loved ones, young and old, and at least once a year we get together for a formal family photograph.

It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.

Somehow Photoshop and the ease with which one can produce an image has degraded the quality of photography in general.

The advantage of taking pictures of the famous is that they get published.

All of my marriages lasted seven years.

If your subjects are eternal ... they'll survive.

You don't study photography, you do it

I wasn't imposing my presence on anyone, which is very important for a would- be journalist. I stayed back. Always let people be themselves.

You have to devote yourself totally to be successful at it.

A picture should be looked at - not talked about.

Quality ... has to do with intention.

I'll always be an amateur photographer.

I like museums in Berlin a lot, especially in the eastern part. They're extraordinarily good.

If you keep your cool, you'll get everything.

You must have a visual sense if you want to be a photographer. It is a very subtle thing, this visual business.

If you're not a curious person, you're certainly not going to be a good photographer.

Most photographers work best alone, myself included.

I like things that have to do with what is real, elegant, well presented and without excessive style. In other words, just fine observation.

I'm not a serious photographer like many of my contemporaries. That is to say, I am serious about not being serious.

The best things happen when you just happen to be somewhere with a camera.

I'm an amateur photographer, apart from being a professional one, and I think maybe my amateur pictures are the better ones.

Dogs don't mind being photographed in compromising situations.

Do what the client wants, not what you want.