There are grander and more sublime landscapes - to me. There are more compelling cultures. But what appeals to me about central Montana is that the combination of landscape and lifestyle is the most compelling I've seen on this earth. Small mountain ranges and open prairie, and different weather, different light, all within a 360-degree view.

Sam Abell

Categorized in : Light Compelling Reason Mountain Ranges

My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my a... by Sam Abell

My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it.

best-work photography photographer

It matters little how much equipment we use; it matters much that... by Sam Abell

It matters little how much equipment we use; it matters much that we be masters of all we do use.

photography use littles

Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay.

photography desire art

Richard Prince's most famous photograph was made by me. by Sam Abell

Richard Prince's most famous photograph was made by me.

photograph made

Life rarely presents fully finished photographs. An image evolves, often from a single strand of visual interest - a distant horizon, a moment of light, a held expression.

horizon light expression

Essentially what photography is is life lit up. by Sam Abell

Essentially what photography is is life lit up.

photography photographer inspirational

We know that photographs inform people. We also know that photographs move people. The photograph that does both is the one we want to see and make.

doe people moving

My least favorite photographer to have would be myself. Someone who wanted a career at National Geographic. Because it's almost mathematically impossible to achieve that.

careers would-be impossible

My first priority when taking pictures is to achieve clarity. A good documentary photograph transmits the information of the situation with the utmost fidelity; achieving it means understanding the nuances of lighting and composition, and also remembering to keep the lenses clean and the cameras steady.

priorities photography mean

"You know you are seeing such a photograph if you say to yourself, "I could have taken that picture. I've seen such a scene before, but never like that." It is the kind of photography that relies for its strengths not on special equipment or effects but on the intensity of the photographer's seeing. It is the kind of photography in which the raw materials-light, space, and shape-are arranged in a meaningful and even universal way that gives grace to ordinary objects."

photography taken meaningful

How the visual world appears is important to me. I'm always aware of the light. I'm always aware of what I would call the 'deep composition.' Photography in the field is a process of creation, of thought and technique. But ultimately, it's an act of imaginatively seeing from within yourself.

important light photography

For example, in my dorm, at the University of Kentucky, I had the only camera. I don't think anyone came to college with a camera, other than me.

kentucky college thinking

But there is more to a fine photograph than information. We are also seeking to present an image that arouses the curiosity of the viewer or that, best of all, provokes the viewer to think-to ask a question or simply to gaze in thoughtful wonder. We know that photographs inform people. We also know that photographs move people. The photograph that does both is the one we want to see and make. It is the kind of picture that makes you want to pick up your own camera again and go to work.

thoughtful photography moving

People say to me, "Who's your favorite kind of photographer?" Or "Who would be your favorite photographer to have in a workshop?"

dad would-be people

A mad, keen photographer needs to get out into the world and work... by Sam Abell

A mad, keen photographer needs to get out into the world and work and make mistakes.

mad photography mistake

Exotic novelty. My statement to [people] is always, well, set this picture in your home town, is it still an interesting picture? Or is it just exotic? Would I care about this same picture minus its exoticism?

home people interesting

Above all, it's hard learning to live with vivid mental images of scenes I cared for and failed to photograph. It is the edgy existence within me of these unmade images that is the only assurance that the best photographs are yet to be made.

vivid photography photographer

'Woman on the Plaza,' with its distinct horizon, snow-like surfaces, wintry wall, stunning sunlight, sharp shadows, and hurrying figure, would become the most biographical of my photographs - an abstract image of the landscape and life of northern Ohio where I grew up and first practiced photography.

ohio wall photography

I think of myself as a writer who photographs. Images, for me, can be considered poems, short stories or essays. And I've always thought the best place for my photographs was inside books of my own creation.

stories book thinking

Typically I see it with photographers who go to a place like India or Nepal, and everything's so colorful and exotic and they think, therefore, a picture's been taken.

india taken thinking