Dorothea Lange Quotes

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

- Dorothea Lange

To know ahead of time what you're looking for means you're then only photographing your own preconceptions, which is very limiting, and often false.

- Dorothea Lange

I believe that what we call beautiful is generally a by-product.

- Dorothea Lange

One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.

- Dorothea Lange

I believe in living with the camera, and not using the camera.

- Dorothea Lange

A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.

- Dorothea Lange

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

- Dorothea Lange

A camera teaches you how to see without a camera.

- Dorothea Lange

While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.

- Dorothea Lange

No country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually.

- Dorothea Lange

The people who are garrulous and wear their heart on their sleeve and tell you everything, that's one kind of person, but the fellow who's hiding behind a tree and hoping you don't see him is the fellow that you'd better find out why.

- Dorothea Lange

I many times encountered courage, real courage. Undeniable courage. I've heard it said that that was the highest quality of the human animal. I encountered that many times, in unexpected places. And I have learned to recognize it when I see it.

- Dorothea Lange

The words that come direct from the people are the greatest... If you substitute one out of your own vocabulary, it disappears before your eyes.

- Dorothea Lange

A documentary photograph is not a factual photograph.

- Dorothea Lange

Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion... the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.

- Dorothea Lange

The visual life is an enormous undertaking, practically unattainable.

- Dorothea Lange

Seeing is more than a physiological phenomenon... We see not only with our eyes but with all that we are and all that our culture is. The artist is a professional see-er.

- Dorothea Lange

It is not enough to photograph the obviously picturesque.

- Dorothea Lange

Surefire things are deadening to the human spirit.

- Dorothea Lange