Dorothea Lange

Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion... the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.

A camera teaches you how to see without a camera.

Surefire things are deadening to the human spirit.

A documentary photograph is not a factual photograph.

The contemplation of things as they are without error or confusion without substitution or imposture is in itself a nobler thing than a whole harvest of invention.

Seeing is more than a physiological phenomenon... We see not only with our eyes but with all that we are and all that our culture is. The artist is a professional see-er.

One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.

The words that come direct from the people are the greatest... If you substitute one out of your own vocabulary, it disappears before your eyes.

A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.

I believe in living with the camera, and not using the camera.

Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you're never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

One should really use the camera as though tomorrow youd be stricken blind.

To know ahead of time what you're looking for means you're then only photographing your own preconceptions, which is very limiting, and often false.

The words that come direct from the people are the greatest.If you substitute one out of your own vocabulary, it disappears before your eyes.

The people who are garrulous and wear their heart on their sleeve and tell you everything, that's one kind of person, but the fellow who's hiding behind a tree and hoping you don't see him is the fellow that you'd better find out why.

It is not enough to photograph the obviously picturesque.

While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.

I many times encountered courage, real courage. Undeniable courage. I've heard it said that that was the highest quality of the human animal. I encountered that many times, in unexpected places. And I have learned to recognize it when I see it.

No country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually.

The visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable.

I believe that what we call beautiful is generally a by-product.