Alfred Stieglitz Photography Quotes & Sayings

Let me here call attention to one of the most universally popular mistakes that have to do with photography - that of classing supposedly excellent work as professional, and using the term amateur to convey the idea of immature productions and to excuse atrociously poor photographs. — Alfred Stieglitz

If you can imagine photography in the guise of a woman and you'd ask her what she thought of Stieglitz, she'd say: He always treated me like a gentleman. — Alfred Stieglitz

Before the people at large, and for that matter, the artists themselves, understand what photography really means, as I understand that term, it is essential for them to be taught the real meaning of art. — Alfred Stieglitz

As a matter of fact, nearly all the greatest work is being, and has always been done, by those who are following photography for the love of it, and not merely for financial reasons. As the name implies, an amateur is one who works for love. — Alfred Stieglitz

The arts equally have distinct departments, and unless photography has its own possibilities of expression, separate from those of the other arts, it is merely a process, not an art. — Alfred Stieglitz

Photography as a fad is well-nigh on its last legs, thanks principally to the bicycle craze. — Alfred Stieglitz

When I make a picture, I make love. — Alfred Stieglitz

I was born in Hoboken. I am an American. Photography is my passion. The search for Truth my obsession. — Alfred Stieglitz

You know exactly what I think of photography. I would like to see it make people despise painting until something else will make photography unbearable. (In a letter to Alfred Stieglitz) — Marcel Duchamp

The fight for photography became my life. — Alfred Stieglitz

Photography is my passion. — Alfred Stieglitz

I do not object to retouching, dodging or accentuation as long as they do not interfere with the natural qualities of photographic technique. — Alfred Stieglitz

Landscape pictures can offer us, I think, three verities: geography, autobiography, and metaphor. Geography is, if taken alone, sometimes boring, autobiography is frequently trivial, and metaphor can be dubious. But taken together, as in the best work of people like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, the three kinds of information strengthen each other and reinforce what we all work to keep intact - the affection for life. — Robert Adams

The ability to make a truly artistic photograph is not acquired off-hand, but is the result of an artistic instinct coupled with years of labor. — Alfred Stieglitz

Photography is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality. — Alfred Stieglitz