8 Inspiring Photography Quotes

Morning Exercise

Today, I am going to shoot someone… and they will love me for it!

Unknown
This quote reminds me of a New York taxi driver who made a photography book called Drive-by Shootings.

I don’t trust words. I trust pictures.

Gilles Peress
A simple quote from Gilles Peress who has covered The Troubles in Northern Ireland for years. “Whatever you say, say nothing” is his book on The North.

We see in colour all the time. Black and white is therefore immediately an interpretation of the world, rather than a copy.

Michael Kenna
This is brilliant from Kenna, he sees colour photography as a direct copy of life where as black and white is a more surreal and abstract way of looking at things.

The eye should learn to listen before it looks.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
I like this quote form Robert Frank and what I think it means is that you should observe a seen and watch and listen to what people are saying and doing before you start taking pictures.

Actually, I’m not all that interested in the subject of photography. Once the photo is in the box, I’m not all that interested in what happens next. Hunters, after all, aren’t cooks.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
What he means here is that Bresson was only interested in the process of taking pictures and not so much into the technical part of photography. I also believe that Bresson didn’t do his own printing.

Once photography enters your bloodstream, it is like a disease.

Anon
I remember seeing a book by Don McCullin called the Destructive Business and I got hooked straight away. It was a bit like heroin for the eye, just couldn’t get enough of it.

After following the crowd for a while, I’d then go 180 degrees in the exact opposite direction. It always worked for me.

Elliott Erwitt
What I believe this quote from Erwitt means, is constantly retrace your steps find and different things that you didn’t find the first time. Constantly go back to the place you photograph before.

The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Bresson was obsessed about detail so much so that he forgot about the what he was taking to look for the smallest of details in people and things.

Share

Read More

View Projects

Paris, France | 1992

At Bastille in 1992, the streets filled with voices against racism. I went there with my camera, not only to follow the march but to look outward, to the edges, where life carried on. Among the crowd I found the quiet faces of bystanders—those who paused, watched, or simply passed through. These photographs hold that tension between history and the everyday, where a city’s ordinary rhythm brushed against the urgency of protest.

Paris, France | 1992

In 1992, Bloomsday at the Collège des Irlandais in Paris brought together lovers of James Joyce’s Ulysses for a day of readings, music, and celebration. The historic building on the Rue des Irlandais, once a home for Irish students in exile, became a lively stage for actors, scholars, and expatriates to honour Leopold Bloom’s odyssey through Dublin. In the intimate courtyard and vaulted rooms, excerpts were read in both English and French, traditional Irish tunes filled the air, and conversations flowed late into the evening—keeping alive a Parisian tradition of celebrating Joyce where history, literature, and the Irish diaspora meet.

Belfast, Northern Ireland | 2025

Andrew is a social documentary photographer based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His work primarily focuses on Protestant, Unionist, and Loyalist communities within the context of a post-conflict society. In an ever-changing Northern Ireland, where demographics shift and political landscapes change, Andrew’s work tries to capture the heartbeat of this, often marginalised, community. After studying photography at Ulster University, Andrew’s work has been featured on the BBC Iplayer, in the Irish News, Belfast Telegraph, the Belfast Archive Project, and Le Point Magazine. Contact the photographer here https://www.instagram.com/andrewj.98/?hl=en