Photography is a magic thing. A thing that has mysterious odors, a little strange and frightening, something one quickly grows to love.
Jacques-Henri LartigueRead
What’s so incredibly amusing with photography is that while seemingly an art of the surface, it catches things I haven’t even noticed. And it pains me not to have seen things in all their depth.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Photography captures unseen depths and nuances of life that often go unnoticed.
In this quote, Jacques-Henri Lartigue expresses his fascination with photography as an art form that reveals layers of beauty and complexity in subjects that might otherwise escape our attention. He laments the missed opportunities to engage with these depths until they are captured through the lens, highlighting photography's power to transform our perception and appreciation of the world around us.
Themes
PhotographyArtDepthPerceptionBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a photography workshop to emphasize the importance of observation.
More from Jacques-Henri Lartigue
All quotes →Similar quotes
My personal experience has been that in my 25 years of writing, I have not been asked to do more than four or five commercial one-shot scripts. These were performed on major national hook-ups but produced for me no immediate additional jobs or requests. One script for BBC was done around the world with an all-star cast.
Langston HughesRead
For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value.
Claude MonetRead
Until I was a teenager, I used red pokeberries for lipstick and a burnt matchstick for eyeliner. I used honeysuckle for perfume.
Dolly PartonRead
All I care about these days is painting — photography has never been more than a way into painting, a sort of instant drawing.
Henri Cartier-BressonRead
Artists love other artists. Shadow artists are gravitating to their rightful tribe but cannot yet claim their birthright. Very often audacity, not talent, makes one person an artist and another a shadow artist-hiding in the shadows, afraid to step out and expose the dream to the light, fearful that it will disintegrate to the touch.
Julia CameronRead
You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.
Milan KunderaRead