We do not make photographs with our cameras. We make them with our minds, with our hearts, with our ideas.
Arnold NewmanRead
Influences come from everywhere but when you are actually shooting you work primarily by instinct. But what is instinct? It is a lifetime accumulation of influence: experience, knowledge, seeing and hearing. There is little time for reflection in taking a photograph. All your experiences come to a peak and you work on two levels: conscious and unconscious.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Instinct in photography arises from accumulated influences and experiences.
In this quote, Arnold Newman explains that when capturing a photograph, a photographer relies on instinct shaped by their lifetime of experiences, knowledge, and influences. This instinct operates on both conscious and unconscious levels, allowing for immediate and intuitive decision-making without the luxury of extensive reflection.
Themes
PhotographyInstinctInfluenceExperienceArt
In practice
Example use cases
In a photography workshop, the instructor emphasizes the importance of trusting your instincts when shooting.
More from Arnold Newman
All quotes βWe don't take photographs with our cameras, we take them with our hearts and our minds. They are a reflection of ourselves...wha t we are and what we think.
Arnold NewmanRead
Visual ideas combined with technology combined with personal interpretation equals photography. Each must hold it's own; if it doesn't, the thing collapses.
Arnold NewmanRead
Similar quotes
Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material.
Philip RothRead
Television and cinema were all very well, but these stories happened to other people. The stories I found in books happened inside my head. I was, in some way, there. It's the magic of fiction: you take the words and you build them into worlds.
Neil GaimanRead
There is rarely a creative man who does not have to pay a high price for the divine spark of his greatest gifts... the human element is frequently bled for the benefit of the creative element and to such an extent that it even brings out the bad qualities, as for instance, ruthless, naive egoism (so-called "auto-eroticism"), vanity, all kinds of vices-and all this in order to bring to the human I at least some life-strength, since otherwise it would perish of sheer inanition.
Carl JungRead
I feel like everything we do comes down to how it looks. Even no branding is branding. For example, you had no face or image to put to my music at first. That was branding.
The WeekndRead
The role of an orchestra in the 21st century isn't just playing, it's about developing future audiences and performers.
Leonard SlatkinRead
It is true that all men are created in the image of God, but Christians are supposed to be conscious of that fact, and being conscious of it should recognize the importance of living artistically, aesthetically, and creatively, as creative creatures of the Creator. If we have been created in the image of an Artist, then we should look for expressions of artistry, and be sensitive to beauty, responsive to what has been created for us
Edith SchaefferRead