Bill Jay Quotes

When you can't think of anything else, photograph graffiti, nudes, or plants.

Predators and prey always coexist. That's why we have galleries as well as photographers.

But there are times when thinking is misplaced, like when taking photographs. You cannot think your way to making photographs; you can photograph your way to clearer thinking.

Ask photographers to write and they have nothing to say; ask them to talk about their work and they won't shut up.

Photographers have already photographed everything too many times, except cheese.

Asked for your opinion on the prints, you have two choices: truth or tact. I ask for the bathroom.

The best way for photographers to become rich and famous is to go into another field.

At exhibition openings always praise the chicken for laying eggs; you can wring its neck later.

A photograph is a mirror; mostly it reflects the prejudices of the viewer.

If you are intent on drawing or painting on your prints, you must first learn to draw and paint at least as well as you photograph.

'I am a camera' but it is a discontinued model.

Words of wisdom for every photographer: 'Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking'. So said Goethe.

...the subject, the thing itself, is the genesis of all types of photography.

I appreciate photographs which celebrate harmony. I don't particularly want to look at chaos. I see enough of that at home.

Photography opens your eyes a little wider to the world around you.

I talk a lot about photography. It's cheap becuase my supply always exceeds demand.

If it is not an interesting picture when in focus, it is not going to be a better picture out of focus.

Why do photographers photograph? To make unreality visible.

I agree, intellectualism in photography is overrated. I just wish it could be replaced by common sense.

Discussions allow photographers to shuffle their prejudices

I'd like my coffin to be a camera obscura so I can see what's going on outside.

True, there are photographers who are failed artists, but so are most artists.

Advice to artists: always take the opportunity to shut up.

A photograph is a picture and no more true or false than any other depiction; why is that so hard to comprehend?

I start a lot of photo projects but never seem to. . . .

Museum collections have given photography rigor, and mortis.

If you cannot think of anything to say that is useful or enlightening about your images, then don't say anything. There are plenty of other people who would love to put words in your mouth.

A few photographers make a killing; the rest can't make a living.

Only in art can you make something that no one wants and still be considered successful.

Think clearly, act sensibly, commit yourself to caring and work hard in order to discover joy. Then give the images back to the world from which they were taken.

I was offered $100,000 for a print. Then I woke up.

If you are bored with your own photography you are really bored with what you are photographing, so pick a new subject about which you are knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

My point is that meaning is always personal, changeable and subjective. There is no 'correct' interpretation of a photograph.

If you take pictures does that make you an art thief?

Photographers, like kids, should be seen and not heard.