Ansel Easton Adams was a landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He was the most important landscape photographer of the 20th century.
Adams is also perhaps the most widely known and beloved photographer in the history of the United States; the popularity of his work has only increased since his death. Profoundly inspirational Ansel Adams quotes will get you through anything when the going gets tough and help you succeed in every aspect of life.
Famous Ansel Adams Quotes
A photograph is usually looked at seldom looked into Ansel Adams
Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution Ansel Adams
You don’t take a photograph, you make it Ansel Adams
There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept Ansel Adams
Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution Ansel Adams
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment Ansel Adams
When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence Ansel Adams
Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop Ansel Adams
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs Ansel Adams
You don’t make a photograph just with a camera You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved Ansel Adams
A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed Ansel Adams
No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit Ansel Adams
A good photograph is knowing where to stand Ansel Adams
A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed Ansel Adams
I believe there is nothing more disturbing than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept! Ansel Adams
Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer and often the supreme disappointment Ansel Adams
There are always two people in every picture the photographer and the viewer Ansel Adams
In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration Ansel Adams
Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer and often the supreme disappointment Ansel Adams
Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs Ansel Adams
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment Ansel Adams
Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships Ansel Adams
Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter Ansel Adams
Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space Ansel Adams
Some photographers take reality and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation Ansel Adams
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs Ansel Adams
Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs Ansel Adams
The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it! Ansel Adams
It is my intention to present through the medium of photography intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators Ansel Adams
A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words Ansel Adams
In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration Ansel Adams
When I’m ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word I’m interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without Ansel Adams
Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas It is a creative art Ansel Adams
In a strict sense photography can never be abstract, for the camera is incapable of synthetic integration Ansel Adams
The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance Each performance differs in subtle ways Ansel Adams
Art is both the taking and giving of beauty; the turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit It is the recreation on another plane of the realities of the world; the tragic and wonderful realities of earth and men, and of all the inter relations of these Ansel Adams
Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop Ansel Adams
How high your awareness level is determines how much meaning you get from your world Photography can teach you to improve your awareness level Ansel Adams
We must remember that a photograph can hold just as much as we put into it, and no one has ever approached the full possibilities of the medium Ansel Adams
I am sure the next step will be the electronic image, and I hope I shall live to see it. I trust that the creative eye will continue to function, whatever technological innovations may develop Ansel Adams
The only things in my life that compatibly exists with this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit Ansel Adams
The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster. Ansel Adams
In my mind’s eye, I visualize how a particular sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice Ansel Adams
Let us leave a splendid legacy for our children let us turn to them and say, this you inherit: guard it well, for it is far more precious than money and once destroyed, nature’s beauty cannot be repurchased at any price Ansel Adams
Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit Ansel Adams
I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful an endless prospect of magic and wonder Ansel Adams
A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words Ansel Adams
When I’m ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word I’m interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without Ansel Adams
Bad weather makes for good photography Ansel Adams
The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it Ansel Adams
I believe in beauty I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate Ansel Adams
Today, we must realize that nature is revealed in the simplest meadow, wood lot, marsh, stream, or tidepool, as well as in the remote grandeur of our parks and wilderness areas Ansel Adams
To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces Ansel Adams
No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied it speaks in silence to the very core of your being Ansel Adams
A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety Ansel Adams
There are no forms in nature Nature is a vast, chaotic collection of shapes You as an artist create configurations out of chaos. You make a formal statement where there was none to begin with All art is a combination of an external event and an internal event Ansel Adams
No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit Ansel Adams
I tried to keep both arts alive, but the camera won I found that while the camera does not express the soul, perhaps a photograph can Ansel Adams
Myths and creeds are heroic struggles to comprehend the truth in the world Ansel Adams
