Imogen Cunningham Photography Quotations

I don't think there's any such thing as teaching people photography, other than influencing them a little. People have to be their own learners. They have to have a certain talent.

I was brought up on art. My father thought I had a great hand at art and sent me to art school. But he did not want me to become a photographer.

Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow.

I wasn't very ambitious. I think that's the solution. I just took things as they came. I wouldn't say I didn't have any problem, but I didn't care. I didn't think I was going to save the world by doing photography as some of these people do. I was just having a good time doing it, and so I still had a good time no matter what I had to photograph.

The thing that's fascinating about portraiture is that nobody is alike.

The formula for doing a good job in photography is to think like a poet.

...There are too many people studying it [photography] now who are never going to make it. You can't give them a formula for making it. You have to have it in you first, you don't learn it. The seeing eye is the important thing.