Irving Penn Quotes

I can get obsessed by anything if i look at it long enough. That's the curse of being a photographer.

A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.

Working on photography is working on oneself.

I myself have always stood in the awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel.

Using simple equipment and daylight alone is for me a pleasure and a replenishment.

Photographing a cake can be art.

I always thought we were selling dreams, not clothes

What I really try to do is photograph people at rest, in a state of serenity.

I feed on art more than I ever do on photographs. I can admire photography, but I wouldn't go to it out of hunger.

Sometime in 1964 I realized that I was a victim of a printmaking obsession, a condition that persists today.

The printed page seems to have come to something of a dead end for all of us.

A beautiful print is a thing in itself, not just a halfway house on the way to the page.

Over the years I must have spent thousands of hours silently brushing on the liquid coatings, preparing each sheet in anticipation of reaching the perfect print.

I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children.