#France

“So you arrive in a place that seems good, where things are composed harmoniously in the space. Then you wait. Waiting with irrational crazy hope. Then people come into the frame and “click” you take the picture"

~ Robert Doisneau
(1912-1994)

“I have never been drawn by one thing in particular other than finishing what I started. That’s always been an obsession of mine. I was also determined to be successful in all the assignments I undertook. When I worked on advertising shoots, I chose the sets myself and really took things seriously. In my personal work, my commitment lays in the interest I had in seeing everything around me, in documenting it all and in letting myself be surprised by people, by what was going on in the street and all around me"

~ Sabine Weiss
(1924-2021)

“Paris is always a good idea.”

~ Audrey Hepburn
(Sabrina)

“New York is a city I loved, a city that forgives nothing but accepts everyone - a place of a thousand moods and vistas, of countless faces in a moving crowd, each one silently talking to you”

~ Louis Stettner
(1922-2016)

“Jazz is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.”

~ Duke Ellington

“Looking back upon those early years in Paris I realize that not only was the city a great inspiration but also that the Parisians gave me the reassurance that I was doing something important. There was an innate respect for artists - for what we were doing and for having the courage to take the hard road. Yet it was a joyous route, such magnificent sights and human splendor along the way that difficulties magically effaced themselves. One regretted nothing and would have it no other way”

~ Louis Stettner
(1922-2016)

"Within the swirling randomness of light and form in nature, sometimes wonderful elements line up out of pure chance - synchronicity. In my view, much of photographing the landscape is about the wonder of ephemeral elements and taking notice of juxtaposed parts that are constantly in motion. It’s all about being present, aware, responsive, and of course, lucky. This photograph was made on a hike on a mostly rainy day in November within the forest of Fontainebleau, France. I was captivated by the graceful shape of the branch and the way the background clouds seemed to mingle with the light and form. The balanced circumstances aligned briefly and then the moment was gone."

~ Jeffrey Conley

“I soon saw how the music came naturally. It wasn’t like they’d built in time to compose - they had to do it on the fly. There was a piano in Paul’s room. At one point John pulled up a chair and started tinkering. Paul joined in. John started humming what I would later recognize as the tune to,“Baby’s good to me you know / She’s happy as can be you know / She said so…..” But they got stuck. Where should it go after the melody?

George wandered over with his guitar and played a catchy rhythm - and -blues riff, plucking away. He seemed to be improvising, although John was later credited with writing the riff-influenced by Bobby Parker’s song “Watch Your Step” - the way I heard it that day it was George coming up with it. They appeared to be writing a song right in front of me. And as John and Paul kept at it on the piano, Ringo, in a black turtle-neck came over and stood next to George, and I had my shot: The Beatles composing “I Feel Fine”.

~ Harry Benson

"For me the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to give a meaning to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression"

~ Henri Cartier-Bresson
(1908-2004)

“I said to her, "Do something with the spirit of the studio corner" and she started to move on the sofa. She just made a movement. I took only two photographs. No need to shoot a hundred rolls like people do today. People in motion are wonderful to photograph. It means catching the right moment - the moment when something when something changes into something else”

~ Andre Kertész

“Whatever we have done, Kertesz did first. We all owe something to Kertesz”

~ Henri Cartier Bresson

“If you ask me what feelings the Eiffel Tower evokes for me, I’d have to say that indeed it’s a matter of sentiments. Those one feels for an old friend one is always glad to see again. A friend who was responsible for my first publication in LIFE in 1953. In the course of a long voyage full of more wear and rather less reason, laying eyes on this great lady again, you’re sure that at last you are home again. She is always there, quite erect, a bit arrogant as she looks down on us from so far above. More than ever she is courted by an increasing number of lovers who climb to conquer her. Her image marked our childhood and coming home from the country on a Sunday evening everyone of my children played the same game at the same age of around 3 or 4 of seeing who would be the first to see the familiar tower in the Paris sky.”

~ Marc Riboud. 1923-2016

“Most important was the outdoor studio that was Paris. I would take long daily walks with my camera, leaving myself open to what ever happened around me. Sometimes I am asked why I did it. There was no economic basis and the possibility of recognition was slight. I suppose I was drawn by a great need and love to get close to the world around me. Each photograph was a way of reaching out and an act of discovery”

~ Louis Stettner (1922-2006)

“This photograph of sand, sea and sky was made one early, cloudy morning on a beach in Calais, France. The exposure was probably about twenty minutes, judging by the movement of water and clouds. Over the years, my vision has been influenced by countless other photographers and I have often viewed my subject matter from the privileged shoulders of giants. I have long admired Hiroshi Sugimoto’s time exposure photographs of seafronts and theater screens. Even while making this image, I knew that it was heavily inspired by Sugimoto’s work. In Japanese, “Arigato" means “Thank you”, and “San" is an honorific word used after somebody’s name as a token of respect and esteem. Hence, Thank you Mr. Sugimoto!”

~ Michael Kenna 

“Photography is nothing. It’s life that interests me"

~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

"A good picture knows how to communicate the emotion that created it."

~ Willy Ronis
( 1910 - 2009 )

"This photo was taken in Parc Monceau, which is in a fairly wealthy part of Paris. I was staying fairly close by on the Avenue de Wagram. The Deux Chevaux is the iconic car of mid-Twentieth Century France and its familiar and unique design has always stood out to me. In the photo, I am interested in this particularly well-worn 2CV juxtaposed against the classical columns of the park's rotunda. All these years later, I'm amazed by black and white photography's ability to preserve the fading light of a fall day that took place decades ago."

~  Mark Steinmetz

“A lot of photographers think that if they buy a better camera they’ll be able to take better photographs. A better camera won’t do a thing for you if you don’t have anything in your head or in your heart.”

~ Arnold Newman

"Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?"

~ Pablo Picasso

"I never, ever, went out without my camera, even to buy bread."

~ Willy Ronis
(1910 - 2009)

"The key point is not the technique of how the image was made, but the idea and the vision."

~ Melvin Sokolsky
(1933 - 2022)