Quotes by Edward Steichen

“Photography is a major force in explaining man to man.”

“Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.”

“The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth.”

“No photographer is as good as the simplest camera.”

“When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I dont give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself.”

“There is only one optimist. He has been here since man has been on this earth, and that is man himself. If we hadnt had such a magnificent optimism to carry us through all these things, we wouldnt be here. We have survived it on our optimism.”

“Once you really commence to see things, then you really commence to feel things.”

“Every ten years a man should give himself a good kick in the pants.”

“A good daguerreotype was as perfect a kind of photograph as was ever made”

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face - the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.

The boy and girl going hand in hand through a meadow the mother washing her baby the sweet simple things in life. We have almost lost track of them. On the one side we overintel-lectualize everything on the other hand we are over-mechanized. We can understand the danger of the atomic bomb but the danger of our misunderstanding the meaning of life is much more serious.

I knew, of course, that trees and plants had roots, stems, bark, branches and foliage that reached up toward the light. But I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.

Photography is a major force in explaining man to man.

When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration.

Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.