Quotes by Ansel Adams

Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer - and often the supreme disappointment.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

You don't take a photograph, you make it.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.

— Ansel Adams

Courage

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.

— Ansel Adams

Life

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

Myths and creeds are heroic struggles to comprehend the truth in the world.

— Ansel Adams

Truth

To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.

— Ansel Adams

Truth

Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

A good photograph is knowing where to stand.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

There are worlds of experience beyond the world of the aggressive man, beyond history, and beyond science. The moods and qualities of nature and the revelations of great art are equally difficult to define; we can grasp them only in the depths of our perceptive spirit.

— Ansel Adams

Education

Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into.

— Ansel Adams

Wisdom

These people live again in print as intensely as when their images were captured on old dry plates of sixty years ago... I am walking in their alleys, standing in their rooms and sheds and workshops, looking in and out of their windows. Any they in turn seem to be aware of me.

— Ansel Adams

Success