Philip Jones Griffiths Quotes & Sayings

People believe pictures. It's a photograph that's in your passport, not a painting. Now,
George Bernard Shaw said, 'I would exchange every painting of Christ for one snapshot.' That's what the power of photography is. — Philip Jones Griffiths

The ability to keep things in perspective is very important for a journalist. In a tense situation you need the ability to be there, yet somehow step aside; to keep a cool head and keep working without getting frustrated. — Philip Jones Griffiths

Even if not a single picture is never published, they exist. And that means that we are recording the history of the human race. If that's all your doing, it still a very very worth while profession to be involved in. — Philip Jones Griffiths

Content alone is propaganda; form alone is wallpaper. — Philip Jones Griffiths

The only thing we photographers really want more than life, more than sex, more than anything, is to be invisible. — Philip Jones Griffiths

Real photography is a wonderfully inclusive, democratic medium, whereas art photography is more often a private pursuit by conmen. — Philip Jones Griffiths

I attempt to channel my anger into the tip of my forefinger as I press the shutter. — Philip Jones Griffiths

We are there with our cameras to record reality. Once we start modifying that which exists, we are robbing photography of its most valuable attribute. — Philip Jones Griffiths

Let's assume that all the cassettes of monochrome film Cartier-Bresson ever exposed had somehow been surreptitiously loaded with colour film. I'd venture to say that about two thirds of his pictures would be ruined and the remainder unaffected, neither spoiled nor improved. And perhaps one in a thousand enhanced. — Philip Jones Griffiths

When Bill Gates started Corbis we were told that he needed images to fill those digital picture frames in his home, and many found this plausible. But now it's pretty clear that he's set out to control the visual history of the twentieth century. — Philip Jones Griffiths

What we get to think and know about the world is in the hands of a very few ... A truly informed public is antithetical to the interests of modern consumer capital. — Philip Jones Griffiths

[Photojournalism] really is the only branch of photography that's a credit to our profession. We see, we understand; we see more, we understand more. — Philip Jones Griffiths

The first picture of his I ever saw was during a lecture at the Rhyl camera club. I was 16 and the speaker was Emrys Jones. He projected the picture upside down. Deliberately, to disregard the subject matter to reveal the composition. It's a lesson I've never forgotten. — Philip Jones Griffiths