« All Photography Quotes · Roland Barthes's Page
Photography Quotes by Roland Barthes
- A photograph is always invisible, it is not it that we see.
- Ultimately, Photography is subversive, not when it frightens, repels, or even stigmatizes, but when it is pensive, when it thinks.
- The realists do not take the photograph for a 'copy' of reality, but for an emanation of past reality, a magic, not an art.
- The Photograph belongs to that class of laminated objects whose two leaves cannot be separated without destroying them both: the windowpane and the landscape, and…
- A paradox: the same century invented history and photography. But history is a memory fabricated according to positive formulas, a pure intellectual discourse which abolishes…
- The Winter Photograph was my Ariadne, not because it would help me discover a secret thing (monster or treasure), but because it would tell me…
- For Death must be somewhere in a society; if it is no longer (or less intensely) in religion, it must be elsewhere; perhaps in this…
- Usually the amateur is defined as an immature state of the artist: someone who cannot — or will not — achieve the mastery of a…
- What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.
- I want a History of Looking. For the Photograph is the advent of myself as other: a cunning dissociation of consciousness from identity. Even odder:…
- In an initial period, Photography, in order to surprise, photographs the notable; but soon, by a familiar reversal, it decrees notable whatever it photographs. The…
- Ultimately — or at the limit — in order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes. 'The…
- Each photograph is read as the private appearance of its referent: the age of Photography corresponds precisely to the explosion of the private into the…
More Photography Quotes
- All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. — Richard Avedon
- In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present. — Francis Bacon
- It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can… — David Bailey
- Rockers are the nicest people to photograph. They have no inhibitions. — David Bailey
- I never tried to revolutionise photography; I just do what I do and keep my fingers crossed that people will like it. — David Bailey
- You don't take a photograph, you make it. — Ansel Adams
- When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. — Ansel Adams
- There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer. — Ansel Adams
- Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art. — Ansel Adams
- A good photograph is knowing where to stand. — Ansel Adams
- There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. — Ansel Adams
- There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. — Ansel Adams