Eliot Porter

“Photography is a strong tool, a propaganda device, and a weapon for the defense of the environment... and therefore for the fostering of a healthy human race and even very likely for its survival.”

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

“Sometimes you can tell a large story with a tiny subject.”

“The more you photograph, the more you realize what can and what can't be photographed. You just have to keep doing it.”

“You learn to see by practice. It’s just like playing tennis, you get better the more you play. The more you look around at things, the more you see. You just have to keep your eyes open.”

“I have been photographing our national parks and other wilderness areas for many years. It is my belief that the wilderness is a resource which can be shared by all.”

“I wanted to produce pictures that would be more than a record of what I had seen, that would be an interpretation of the subject—an emotional reaction to what I was seeing.”

“The artist's world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.”

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

“The creative photographer is one who is able to get a new quality into his work; that new quality is vision.”

“The great artist is the simplifier.”

“I am not interested in the documentary aspects of photography, except as a capturing of a moment of perception.”