Bill Brandt

“A good portrait is one that says something about the person. We don't want to know about the photographer.”

“The subject is not the important thing; it is the interpretation of the subject that is the important thing.”

“I think a good portrait is one that makes you ask questions about the person.”

“Photography is not a sport. It has no rules. Everything must be dared and tried!”

“Often I have been told that I am a surrealist. I do not consider myself a surrealist, but I am in favour of the surrealist's creed of finding the 'ever-surprising' in the everyday.”

“Shadows are as important as light.”

“The photographer's eye is perpetually evaluating. A photographer can bring coincidence of line simply by moving his head a fraction of a millimeter.”

“My main theme is the pilgrimage of man on this earth.”

“A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere.”

“I believe in the beauty of the commonplace.”

“I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new.”

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

“It is part of the photographer's job to see more intensely than most people do. He must have and keep in him something of the receptiveness of the child who looks at the world for the first time or of the traveler who enters a strange country.”

“I have always been fascinated by the strangeness of the ordinary.”

“It is the subject that is fascinating. I'm not interested in recording the facts. I'm interested in creating an image.”