Alfred Eisenstaedt Quotes

IdleHearts / Quotes by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Enjoy the best inspirational, motivational, positive, funny and famous quotes by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Use words and picture quotations to push forward and inspire you keep going in life!

Image, The most important thing… is not clicking the shutter… it is clicking

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The most important thing... is not clicking the shutter... it is clicking with the subject.

Image, I have to be as much diplomat as a photographer.

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I have to be as much diplomat as a photographer.

Image, In a photograph a person’s eyes tell much, sometimes they tell all.

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In a photograph a person’s eyes tell much, sometimes they tell all.

Image, Once the amateur’s naive approach and humble willingness to learn fades away,

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Once the amateur's naive approach and humble willingness to learn fades away, the creative spirit of good photography dies with it. Every professional should remain always in his heart an amateur.

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Image, I enjoy traveling and recording far-away places and people with my camera.

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I enjoy traveling and recording far-away places and people with my camera. But I also find it wonderfully rewarding to see what I can discover outside my own window. You only need to study the scene with the eyes of a photographer.

Image, In New York’s Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse

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In New York’s Times Square a white-clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers.

Image, Never boss people around. It’s more important to click with people than

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Never boss people around. It's more important to click with people than to click the shutter.

Image, I want to be a mouse in a mousehole.

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I want to be a mouse in a mousehole.

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Image, The way I would describe a pictorial is that it is a

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The way I would describe a pictorial is that it is a picture that makes everybody say ‘Aaaaah,’ with five vowels when they see it. It is something you would like to hang on the wall. The french word ‘photogenique’ defines it better than anything in English. It is a picture which must have quality, drama, and it must, in addition, be as good technically as you can possible make it.

Image, Yes, I sold buttons to earn living. But I took pictures to

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Yes, I sold buttons to earn living. But I took pictures to keep on living. Pictures are my life – as necessary as eating or breathing.

Image, I see pictures all the time. I could stay for hours and watch a raindrop.

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I see pictures all the time. I could stay for hours and watch a raindrop.

Image, Retire? Retire from What? Life? I will only retire when I am dead!

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Retire? Retire from What? Life? I will only retire when I am dead!

Image, Today’s photographers think differently. Many can’t see real light anymore. They think

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Today's photographers think differently. Many can't see real light anymore. They think only in terms of strobe - sure, it all looks beautiful but it's not really seeing. If you have the eyes to see it, the nuances of light are already there on the subject's face. If your thinking is confined to strobe light sources, your palette becomes very mean - which is the reason I photograph only in available light.

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Image, Another picture I hope to be remembered by is this one of

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Another picture I hope to be remembered by is this one of the drum major rehearsing at the University of Michigan. It was early in this morning, and I saw a little boy running after him, all the faculty children in the playing field ran after the boy, and I ran after them. This is a completely spontaneous, unstaged picture.

Image, I will be remembered when I’m in heaven. People won’t remember my

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I will be remembered when I'm in heaven. People won't remember my name, but they will know the photographer who did that picture of that nurse being kissed by the sailor at the end of World War II. Everybody remembers that.

Image, It’s important to understand it’s OK to control the subject. If most

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It's important to understand it's OK to control the subject. If most editorial stories were photographed just as they are, editors would end up throwing most in the waste basket. You have to work hard at making an editorial picture. You need to re-stage things, rearrange things so that they work for the story, with truth and without lying.

Image, With photography, everything is in the eye and these days I feel

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With photography, everything is in the eye and these days I feel young photographers are missing the point a bit. People always ask about cameras but it doesn't matter what camera you have. You can have the most modern camera in the world but if you don't have an eye, the camera is worthless. Young people know more about modern cameras and lighting than I do. When I started out in photography I didn't own an exposure meter - I couldn't , they didn't exist! I had to guess.