You don’t take a photograph, you make it.

Ansel Adams

 

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

Ansel Adams

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.

Ansel Adams

There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.

Ansel Adams

Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.

Ansel Adams

No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.

Ansel Adams

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.

Ansel Adams

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.

Ansel Adams

Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.

Ansel Adams

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

Ansel Adams

Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.

Ansel Adams

Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer – and often the supreme disappointment.

Ansel Adams

Not everybody trusts paintings but people believe photographs.

Ansel Adams

I tried to keep both arts alive, but the camera won. I found that while the camera does not express the soul, perhaps a photograph can!

Ansel Adams

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.

Ansel Adams

Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships.

Ansel Adams

Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.

Ansel Adams

The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.

Ansel Adams

Some photographers take reality… and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.

Ansel Adams

A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into.

Ansel Adams

Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundaries, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit.

Ansel Adams