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
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
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
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
I was asked by a student what my most significant accomplishment was at National Geographic, after thirty years, and I said that… — 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
As I have practiced it, photography produces pleasure by simplicity. I see something special and show it to the camera. A picture… — 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
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
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
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
Yes, there are billions more photographers, and billions more photographs every day, but who's building up a point of view? Who's photographing… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
Though Geographic didn't publish that photo in the story that it was done for, "The Life of Charlie Russell," a cowboy artist… — 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
My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it. — 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
I was giving a lecture and I said, that's enough about The Photographic Life, meaning my biography, now let's talk about the… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
My Dad took a workshop from a photographer who worked at the Toledo Blade, a newspaper I delivered. I knew this photographer's… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
I think of myself as a writer who photographs. Images, for me, can be considered poems, short stories or essays. And I've… — 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
I was a consultant for Kodak back in the late 80's. There were engineers there who told me that in the future,… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
And that desire-the strong desire to take pictures-is important. It borders on a need, based on a habit: the habit of seeing.… — Sam Abell Copy Share Image
That's who comes to my workshops. I jokingly tell my students that the class could be called "Your photographs: Better." — 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
