A Place to Reflect
This seemed like a good idea so I thought I would capture my own stream of consciousness made on a wet November afternoon. No reasons. No order. (Maybe) no sense. Here they are regardless.
- A camera is really a notebook. If you carry it with you at all times you will make many ‘notes’.
- At its core, photography is the art of looking.
- Looking is not the same as seeing. You can look and not see but you won’t see if you don’t look.
- A photograph is made when reality joins with imagination.
- There does not have to be any reasons for your photographs. Just go with the mood of the moment.
- In photography, nothing worth knowing can be taught.
- Or, to put it another way, learning photography can teach you much but doing photography teaches you far, far more.
- If you can make five great photographs in your career, that’s pretty good.
- A photograph is made when the right light, falls on the right subject at the right moment.
- There are many things that make a great photograph – an expensive camera is not one of them.
- The democratisation of photography (through social media, camera phones, digitisation and unlimited amounts of storage) is a great thing. However, as we are seeing in the real world today, democracy is also a fragile thing, which can easily be corrupted.
- Today it’s easier than ever to take a photograph. It’s not so easy to make a photograph.
- Your first camera will live with you forever – for that is what made you see for the first time.
- The camera you own today will still create great images in five years time. Think how much money you could save if you put that into practice.
- I don’t want to be a [insert any genre here] photographer. I just want to be a photographer.
- Remember how curious you used to be as a child. You should remember that when you are making photographs. Photography should be about thought, reflection and a curiosity about what is happening in the world.
- The camera takes a photograph but it is the minds-eye that makes a photograph.
- If as a photographer you can take the mundane and make it special, then that is a wonderful gift.
- On the street the best images you see will be the ones when you don’t have your camera with you or at hand or you are not quick enough.
Some of these thoughts came about from watching videos of these greats upon whom’s shoulders I, and may of us I’m sure, sit: André Kertész, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon, Bill Cunningham, Eve Arnold, Jeanloup Sieff and Magnum.
Peter Cripps | Photography 
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