Bruce Barnbaum > Quotes

“It has long struck me that people who attempt creative work of any type—scientific, artistic, or otherwise—without feeling any enthusiasm for that work have no chance at success.”
― Bruce Barnbaum, The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression

“The scene has not been composed, but merely selected”
― Bruce Barnbaum, The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression

“Just as people talk about things of no real interest to them, they also take pictures of things that have no real interest to them, and the results are uniformly boring.”
― Bruce Barnbaum, The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression

“When I walk the reader through my definition of “good composition” and the elements of composition in The Art of Photography, I do not discuss any rules for good composition. I avoid them because there are none. Every composition is unique, and following some concocted formula will not guarantee a good photograph. There are no formulas; there are no rules of composition. I strongly urge all photographers, beginner or experienced, to avoid any instruction or instructor that claims there are—it’s bogus.”
― Bruce Barnbaum, The Essence of Photography: Seeing and Creativity

“I suggest that it’s better to have a good memory of a wonderful scene than a bad photograph of it, which will eventually become your memory of it.”
― Bruce Barnbaum, The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression

“we all look at photographs with our eyes, not with a microscopic caliper!”
― Bruce Barnbaum, The Art of Photography: A Personal Approach to Artistic Expression

“compositional”
― Bruce Barnbaum, The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression

“you will no longer be thinking in terms of recording a scene, but rather in terms of interpreting a scene. You will no longer be showing merely what you saw, but how you reacted to it. You will no longer be reporting on scenes; instead, you will be commenting on them. In short, you will be using photography as a means of personal expression.”
― Bruce Barnbaum, The Art of Photography: An Approach to Personal Expression