Dorothea Lange

“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.”

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

“The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”

“A documentary photograph is not a factual photograph.”

“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.”

“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.”

“It is not enough to photograph the obviously picturesque.”

“Surefire things are deadening to the human spirit.”

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

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

“No country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“The visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable.”

“A camera teaches you how to see without a camera.”