In this article you will find 22 of the most fabulous women photographer quotes. Yes, of course, brilliant women like Susan Sontag, Diane Arbus, Dorothea Lange, Julia Margaret Cameron, Sally Man, and many others, have practiced and reflected on photography as a medium capable of affecting our emotions and memories to the extreme. Enjoy these beautiful women photographer quotes. Feel free to comment if you know of any women photographer quotes that we missed!
The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004), On Photography.
A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.
Diane Arbus (1923 – 1971)
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)
I longest to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied.
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879)
When I was shooting with collodion, I wasn’t just snapping a picture. I was fashioning, with fetishistic ceremony, an object whose ragged black edges gave it the appearance of having been torn from time itself.
Sally Mann, Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs
All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004)
Pictures could not be accessories to the story — evidence — they had to contain the story within the frame; the best picture contained a whole war within one frame.
Tatjana Soli, The Lotus Eaters
I refuse to have my vagina photographed because I have no interest in being desired on the basis of its appearance.
Antonella Gambotto-Burke.
Through photography and the written word I desperately try to overcome the fleeting condition of my existence, to catch the moments before they fade away, to clear the confusion of my past.
Isabel Allende (1942- ) , Portrait in Sepia..
I don’t have two lives. This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.
Annie Leibovitz, A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005.
Unlike cooking, photography kept you on your toes. It was chaotic and human — utterly unpredictable. To capture an unposed face you had to wait for it. It was spear fishing. you had to move between the competing rhythms of the world and strike.
Mary H.K. Choi, Emergency Contact
Sometimes I would set up the camera in a corner of the room, sit some distance away from it with a remote control in my hand, and watch our people while Mr. Caldwell talked with them. It might be an hour before their faces or gestures gave us what we were trying to express, but the instant it occurred the scene was imprisoned on a sheet of film before they knew what had happened.
Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971)
I know the best moments can never be captured on film, even as I spend nearly half my life trying to do just that.
Rosie O’Donnell
I long to have such a memorial of every being dear to me in the world. It is not merely the likeness which is precious in such cases – but the association and the sense of nearness involved in the thing…the fact of the very shadow of the person lying there fixed forever! It is the very sanctification of portraits I think – and it is not at all monstrous in me to say, what my brothers cry out against so vehemently, that I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, that the noblest artist’s work ever produced.
Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861)
They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.
Tallulah Bankhead (1903-1968)
If I were just curious, it would be very hard to say to someone, “I want to come to your house and have you talk to me and tell me the story of your life.” I mean people are going to say, “You’re crazy.” Plus they’re going to keep mighty guarded. But the camera is a kind of license. A lot of people, they want to be paid that much attention and that’s a reasonable kind of attention to be paid.
Diane Arbus (1923-1971)
It is a cruel, ironical art, photography. The dragging of captured moments into the future; moments that should have been allowed to be evaporate into the past; should exist only in memories, glimpsed through the fog of events that came after. Photographs force us to see people before their future weighed them down…
Kate Morton (1976 – ), The House at Riverton
Women that can work a camera with ease often work men just as effortlessly for both require the same commitment to vanity and manipulation.
Tiffany Madison.
I tend to think of the act of photographing, generally speaking, as an adventure. My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.
Diane Arbus (1923-1971)
No, you don’t shoot things. You capture them. Photography means painting with light. And that’s what you do. You paint a picture only by adding light to the things you see.
Katja Michael
Everything that flickered could be made permanent. That was what drew him to photography, what made every painstaking step worth it: the permanence of the image. That was what fascinated him, the working against time…
Katie Roiphe, Still She Hounts Me.
A photo does not always have to be technically perfect and a masterpiece. After all, life is not and yet we find it wonderful.
Nina Hrusa.
Women Photographer Quotes
Women photography quotes are important for several reasons.
First of all, representation. Women have historically been underrepresented in photography, both as photographers and as subjects. Quotes from women photographers and artists help to showcase the important contributions that women have made to the field of photography and to bring more attention to their work.
Bue also, inspiration! Quotes from women photographers can serve as a source of inspiration for aspiring photographers, particularly women who may be looking for role models or examples of successful women in the field.
And Empowerment: Quotes from women photographers can help to empower women, both as photographers and as individuals. By highlighting the unique perspectives and experiences of women in photography, these quotes can help to challenge stereotypes and promote a more inclusive and diverse vision of the field.
A special perspective: Quotes from women photographers often offer a different perspective on the art of photography and the world at large. This can help to broaden our understanding of the medium and to inspire new ways of seeing and interpreting the world around us.
Overall, women photography quotes are important because they help to elevate the voices and perspectives of women in a field that has traditionally been male-dominated. By highlighting the work and wisdom of women photographers, we can promote greater diversity, representation, and innovation in the world of photography
Why should we focus on women photographer quotes? Well, because in photography, as in almost every order of life and history, women’s work and thinking has often been overlooked, despised and overshadowed. History shows mostly the achievements and successes of men, while women have mostly been forced to invest a huge part of their time working for others: family, children … and husband.
So, it is normal that the history of photography and its practice, appear as a very masculine adventure, while we have plenty of examples that show that women have contributed much to the art of photography, even more than men: these women photographer quotes are here to prove it! It is not for nothing that the most important photographer today, and one of the best paid artists of our time, is a woman, the splendid Cindy Sherman.
These quotes on photography by women give a glimpse of women’s unique point of view, very concretely attached to the fundamental aspects of our lives: memory, death and beauty. Do you know a women photographer quote and want to share: please comment below!
Thank you for sharing this very special women thoughts about photography!