Eve Arnold Quotes
If you are careful with people, they will offer you part of themselves. That is the big secret.
If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.
I think if I ever get satisfied, I’ll have to stop. It’s the frustration that drives you.
If the photographer is interested in the people in front of his lens, and if he is compassionate, it's already a lot. The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.
I didn't want to be a woman photographer. That would limit me. I wanted to be a photographer who was a woman, with all the world open to my camera.
I don't see anybody as either ordinary or extraordinary. I see them simply as people in front of my lens.
I found a way of working which pleased me because I didn’t have to frighten people with heavy equipment. It was that little black box and me.
It's the hardest thing in the world to take the mundane and try to show how special it is.
It doesn't matter if you use a box camera or you use a Leica; the important thing is what motivates you when you are photographing.
Being a woman is just a marvelous plus in photographing. Men like to be photographed by women, it becomes flirtatious and fun, and women feel less as if they're expected to be in a relationship.
What I have tried to do is involve the people I was photographing... if they were willing to give, I was willing to photograph.
I love the idea I can go off with a single camera and a few rolls of film unencumbered... I was not interested in the illusion of reality, I wanted to get close to what was happening.
What has changed is that when I photographed, most people that I photographed didn't have the right of refusal on their work. It would take a Marilyn Monroe at her height to be able to dictate that.
What you need to be a good photographer is an overwhelming curiosity and a good digestion.
What drove me and kept me going over the decades? If I had to use a single word, it would be 'curiosity.
A studio session ... provides the greatest chance for control. Even though there is total freedom, I still dislike studio photography and the contrived images that usually stem from this genre.
