What matters is not what you photograph, but why and how you photograph it. Even the most controversial subject, if depicted by a sensitive photographer with honesty, sympathy, and understanding, can be transformed into an emotionally rewarding experience.

Andreas Feininger

Categorized in : Photography Honesty What Matters

A technically perfect photograph can be the world's most boring picture.

Andreas Feininger

photography perfect world

As an amateur you have an advantage over photographers - you can do as you wish... This should make amateurs the happiest of photographers.

Andreas Feininger

photography photographer wish

Every successful photograph, except for lucky shots, begins with an idea and a plan. The more precisely a photographer knows what it is he wishes to do, the better the chances are that he will do it.

Andreas Feininger

photography successful ideas

Any good photograph is a successful synthesis of technique and art.

Andreas Feininger

photography successful art

The difference in 'seeing' between the eye and the lens should make it obvious that a photographer who merely points his camera at an appealing subject and expects to get an appealing picture in return, may be headed for a disappointment.

Andreas Feininger

eye photography disappointment

No one can do inspired work without genuine interest in his subject and understanding of its characteristics.

Andreas Feininger

understanding photography photographer

Realism and superrealism are what I'm after. This world is full of things the eye doesn't see. The camera can see more, and often 10 times better.

Andreas Feininger

cameras eye photography

Photographers - idiots, of which there are so many - say, "Oh, if only I had a Nikon or a Leica, I could make great photographs." That's the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life. It's nothing but a matter of seeing, and thinking, and interest.

Andreas Feininger

leica photography thinking

Know - how is worthless unless guided by know - why and know - when.

Andreas Feininger

know-how photography photographer

Light is the photographic medium par excellence; it is to the photographer what words are to the writer; color and paint to the painter; wood, metal, stone, or clay to the sculptor.

Andreas Feininger

color light photography

Before you shoot an irresistible subject, mute all your senses except sight to find out how much is left for the camera to record.

Andreas Feininger

cameras photography sight

Experience has shown that the more fascinating the subject, the less observant the photographer.

Andreas Feininger

subjects photography photographer

With a short lens I can reveal the hidden things near at hand, with a long lens the hidden things far away. The telephoto lens provides a new visual sensation for people: it widens their horizons. And, conversely, the things under our nose invariably look good when blown up really big.

Andreas Feininger

photography long hands

It's nothing but a matter of seeing, thinking, and interest. That's what makes a good photograph. And then rejecting anything that would be bad for the picture. The wrong light, the wrong background, time and so on. Just don't do it, not matter how beautiful the subject is.

Andreas Feininger

photography beautiful thinking

A photographer who does not know how to translate his feelings and ideas into a graphically satisfactory form is bound to produce ineffective photographs, no matter how idealistic, compassionate, sensitive or imaginative he may be. For in order to be considered good, a photograph must not only say something worthwhile, it must say it well.

Andreas Feininger

feelings order ideas

Once a photographer is convinced that the camera can lie and that, strictly speaking, the vast majority of photographs are camera lies, inasmuch as they tell only part of a story or tell it in distorted form, half the battle is won. Once he has conceded that photography is not a naturalistic medium of rendition and that striving for naturalism in a photograph is futile, he can turn his attention to using a camera to make more effective pictures.

Andreas Feininger

battle photography lying

Two factors thus emerge as requisites of success in the field of creative photography. First, the subject must be photogenic. Second, its re-creation in a photograph must be based upon technical knowledge, guided and supported by artsitic inspiration.

Andreas Feininger

photography inspiration two

The photographer has almost as much control over his subject matter as a painter. He can control light and shade, form and space, pattern and texture, motion and mood, everything except composition.

Andreas Feininger

texture space light

The first impression of a new subject is not necessary the best. Seen from a different angle or under different condition it might look even better. Always study a three - dimensional subject with one eye closed.

Andreas Feininger

first-impression eye photography

Don't look for "depth" but instead search for subject aspects which prove the presence of depth.

Andreas Feininger

depth photography looks