190 Quotes by Ansel Adams

A photograph is not an accident - is a concept. It exists at, or before, the moment of exposure of the negative.

Autumn Moon, the High Sierra from Glacier Point,

We make images to "honor what is greater and more interesting than we are."

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

I am probably afraid that some spectator will not understand my photography - therefore I proceed to make it really less understandable by writing defensibly about it.

I never know in advance what I will photograph, ... I go out into the world and hope I will come across something that imperatively interests me. I am addicted to the found object. I have no doubt that I will continue to make photographs till my last breath.

The [35mm] camera is for life and for people, the swift and intense moments of life.

In some photographs the essence of light and space dominate; in others, the substance of rock and wood, and the luminous insistence of growing things...It is my intention to present-through the medium of photography-intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to spectators...

We were in the shadow of the mountains, the light was cool and quiet and no wind was stirring. The aspen trunks were slightly greenish and the leaves were a vibrant yellow.