Philip Jones Griffiths Inspirational Quotes (8)

I attempt to channel my anger into the tip of my forefinger as I press the shutter.

Real photography is a wonderfully inclusive, democratic medium, whereas art photography is more often a private pursuit by conmen.

The ability to keep things in perspective is very important for a journalist. In a tense situation you need the ability to be there, yet somehow step aside to keep a cool head and keep working without getting frustrated.

Content alone is propaganda form alone is wallpaper.

Let's assume that all the cassettes of monochrome film Cartier-Bresson ever exposed had somehow been surreptitiously loaded with colour film. I'd venture to say that about two thirds of his pictures would be ruined and the remainder unaffected, neither spoiled nor improved. And perhaps one in a thousand enhanced.

People believe pictures. It's a photograph that's in your passport, not a painting. Now, George Bernard Shaw said, 'I would exchange every painting of Christ for one snapshot.' That's what the power of photography is.

The only thing we photographers really want more than life, more than sex, more than anything, is to be invisible.

The first picture of his I ever saw was during a lecture at the Rhyl camera club. I was 16 and the speaker was Emrys Jones. He projected the picture upside down. Deliberately, to disregard the subject matter to reveal the composition. It's a lesson I've never forgotten.