A mad, keen photographer needs to get out into the world and work and make mistakes. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
We know that photographs inform people. We also know that photographs move people. The photograph that does both is the one we… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
It's more difficult now, to be a Geographic photographer, than it was when I came along. And it wasn't easy at that… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
[ My time and our common culture] it's what I'm photographing, and I'm very involved with that. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I wanted life to be episodic. I wanted to be a magazine photographer and I was willing to do what it took… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
My dad had been an ardent amateur photographer, and he taught me to compose a photograph from the back to the front,… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Even though I teach with 35mm, my method takes people by surprise, because it isn't fast, and it isn't about hardware or… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
People say to me, "Who's your favorite kind of photographer?" Or "Who would be your favorite photographer to have in a workshop?"… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
It matters little how much equipment we use; it matters much that we be masters of all we do use. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
There are things that I teach, about building photographs, and that's why people come to my workshops. When people come to the… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
It's a little bit like talking about the life of writing. The life of writing may be about many things, but it… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
This might seem off the track, but an interesting thing to me that others could talk about better than I, but one… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I think that it's workshops, honestly, that have kept me keen about photography, and about my photography. My career as a workshop… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Above all, it's hard learning to live with vivid mental images of scenes I cared for and failed to photograph. It is… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I did it once, and National Geographic recruited me. I did it primarily out of curiosity. A lot of legendary photographers had… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
How the visual world appears is important to me. I'm always aware of the light. I'm always aware of what I would… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
The thing with my workshops is, photography is a thoughtful process. In an atmosphere of fast photography, and generally thoughtless, quick, automatic… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
There are a lot of ways to talk about the life of a photograph. You can talk about the afterlife of a… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
For spiritual companions I have had the many artists who have relied on nature to help shape their imagination. And their most… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
But there is more to a fine photograph than information. We are also seeking to present an image that arouses the curiosity… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
You know you are seeing such a photograph if you say to yourself, "I could have taken that picture. I've seen such… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
One of the things that I most believe in is the compose and wait philosophy of photography. It’s a very satisfying, almost… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
In the last workshop I taught, a woman flew in from Thailand. She's a medical doctor in Bangkok. I asked her in… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
My least favorite photographer to have would be myself. Someone who wanted a career at National Geographic. Because it's almost mathematically impossible… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
My father taught me photography. It was his hobby, and we had a small darkroom in the fruit cellar of our basement.… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
My connection to Santa Fe is very closely, and continuously a connection with Reid. I believe in him and his philosophy of… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I'm very involved in photographing America now, so I don't think of faraway places, as I did when I was young. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Typically I see it with photographers who go to a place like India or Nepal, and everything's so colorful and exotic and… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
It actually has transcended my career at the Geographic, so that when my career there ended, I had momentum as a teacher,… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I had luck, but I worked hard and I suffered. It's not just photography I'm talking about. It's about whatever dream you… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
[In the late 80's] that's the first time I heard about that astonishing idea [that most photographs would be taken on telephones].… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I did it once, and National Geographic recruited me. I did it primarily out of curiosity. A lot of legendary photographers had worked on… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I can't speak for other photographers, but the photographers who went forward strongly when the so-called "official" part of their career ended, to me,… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Actually, ambition won't get you that far. You'll shift gears. You'll see something that's shinier. But if you believe... then you're the long-distance runner. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
A mad, keen photographer needs to get out into the world and work and make mistakes. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I have this awareness that the more dynamic the situation is, the more on guard I need to be that the dynamic isn't controlling… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
What I'm interested in is modern American history. I'm taken with the changes that have occurred in America in my lifetime. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Life rarely presents fully finished photographs. An image evolves, often from a single strand of visual interest - a distant horizon, a moment of… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me. — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I wanted life to be episodic. I wanted to be a magazine photographer and I was willing to do what it took to become… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
That statement [ Stephen Ambrose:'You, Sam, have the hardest job, which is, pretend like nothing has happened in the last 200 years.'] woke me… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
![“[ My time and our common culture] it's what I'm photographing, and I'm very involved with that.” quote by Sam Abell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b58/sam-abell-7768_common_my-time-and-our-common-culture-it-s-what_1436602.jpg)
![“[In the late 80's] that's the first time I heard about that astonishing idea [that most photographs would be taken on telephones]. And now I've been watching the tsunami of images.” quote by Sam Abell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/aa1/sam-abell-7768_astonishing_in-the-late-80-s-that-s-the-first-time-i_650129.jpg)
![“That statement [ Stephen Ambrose:'You, Sam, have the hardest job, which is, pretend like nothing has happened in the last 200 years.'] woke me up to the fact that the landscape that Lewis and Clark came across was greater than the Serengeti. And it's gone.” quote by Sam Abell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b88/sam-abell-7768_facts_that-statement-stephen-ambrose-you-sam-h_236207.jpg)