Two of my favorite things in life? Photography and quotes. I collect like a hoarder, amassing lenses and journals, full of eloquent lines, with reckless abandon.

So, why not combine them?

Friends, I give you 35 of my all-time favorite inspirational photography quotes! With insights on the art of capturing the world around us, each quote is more brilliant than the last.

Grab a pen, you’re going to want to write these down.

INSPIRATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY QUOTES:

1.  “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.”
          – Dorothea Lange

2.  “Photography is the story I fail to put into words.” 
          – Destin Sparks

3.  “The world moves fast, changing everything around us with each new day. Photography is a gift that can keep us in a moment forever, blissfully eternal.” 
          – Ali Novak

4.  “Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever…It remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”
          – Aaron Siskind

5.  “You don’t take a photograph. You ask quietly to borrow it.” 
          – Unknown

6.  “Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”
          – Marc Riboud

7.  “Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure.”
          – Tony Benn

8.  “My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.”
          – Steve McCurry

9.  “Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.” 
          – Ansel Adams

10.  “There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.”
          – Abraham Lincoln

11.  “Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.” 
          – Anonymous

12.  “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
          – Elliott Erwitt

13.  “Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.” 
          – Peter Adams

14.  “When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes.”
          – Anonymous

15.  “If you see something that moves you, and then snap it, you keep a moment.”
          – Linda McCartney

16.  “My love of photography is melded with the ability to capture what I want to remember in the moment I want to never forget.” 
          – Devin Dygert

17.  “Photography is a love affair with life.”
          – Burk Uzzle

18.  “If your pictures are not good enough you are not close enough.” 
          – Robert Capa

19.  “My interest in photography is not to capture an image I see or even have in my mind, but to explore the potential of moments I can only begin to imagine.”
          – Lois Greenfield

20.  “Which of my photographs is my favorite?  The one I’m going to take tomorrow.”
          – Imogen Cunningham

21.  “Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.”
          – Matt Hardy

22.  “A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it.”
          – Irving Penn

23.  “I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I’ve lost.”
          – Nan Goldin

24.  “What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.” 
          – Karl Lagerfeld

25.  “Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” 
          – Dorothea Lange

26.  “Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important and capture the good times, develop from the negatives and if things don’t work out, just take another shot.”
          – Unknown

27.  “Taking a picture is like giving a piece of your soul away. You allow other people to see the world through your eyes.” 
          – Katja Michael

28.  “Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame.  When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.” 
          – Garry Winogrand

29.  “Once you learn to care, you can record images with your mind or on film. There is no difference between the two.” 
          – Anonymous

30.  “The two most engaging powers of a photograph are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.” 
          – William Thackeray

31.  “You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think about it your entire life.”
          – Joan Miro

32.  “In photography and in life, always look for the light.  If you don’t see it, bring it.” 
          – John Waire

33.  “I take the same picture twice. First with my heart, then with my camera.” 
          – Biju Karakkonam

34.  “One doesn’t stop seeing. One doesn’t stop framing. It doesn’t turn off and turn on. It’s on all the time.”
          – Annie Leibovitz

35.  “It’s weird that photographers spend years or even a whole lifetime, trying to capture moments that added together, don’t even amount to a couple of hours.” 
          – James Lalropui Keivom

And, there you have it!  35 of the most inspirational photography quotes sure to have you reaching for your camera.

What are some of your favorite quotes? Comment below, I’d love to hear them!

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