97 Quotes by Edward Weston

As great a picture can be made as one’s mental capacity-no greater. Art cannot be taught; it must be self-inspiration, though the imagination may be fired and the ambition and work directed by the advice and example of others.

It seems so utterly naive that landscape – not that of the pictorial school – is not considered of “social significance” when it has a far more important bearing on the human race of a given locale than excrescences called cities.

My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, or the camera’s eye may entirely change my idea.

I don’t care if you make a print on a bath mat, just as long as it is a good print.

The great scientist dares to differ from accepted ‘facts’ – think irrationally – let the artist do likewise.

Photography suits the temper of this age – of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately.

People who wouldn’t think of taking a sieve to the well to draw water fail to see the folly in taking a camera to make a painting.

Art is based on order. The world is full of ‘sloppy Bohemians’ and their work betrays them.

The photograph isolates and perpetuates a moment of time: an important and revealing moment, or an unimportant and meaningless one, depending upon the photographer’s understanding of his subject and mastery of his process.