Walker Evans Quotes

Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.

Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.

In order to put meaning back into our lives, we should recognize illusions for what they are, and we should reach out and touch the fabric of reality.

The secret of photography is, the camera takes on the character and personality of the handler.

Documentary: That’s a sophisticated and misleading word. And not really clear… The term should be documentary style… You see, a document has use, whereas art is really useless.

The meaning of quality in photography's best pictures lies written in the language of vision. That language is learned by chance, not system.

The eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.

Good photography is unpretentious.

That’s my idea of what a portrait ought to be, anonymous and documentary and a straightforward picture of mankind.

It's easy to photograph light reflecting from a surface, the truly hard part is capturing the light in the air.

I wanted so much to write that I couldn't write a word.

It is the way to educate your eye and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop.

Photography is not cute cats, nor nudes, motherhood or arrangements of manufactured products. Under no circumstances it is anything ever anywhere near a beach.

I say half jokingly that photography is the most difficult of the arts. It does require a certain arrogance to see and to choose. I feel myself walking on a tightrope instead of on the ground.

It's too presumptuous and naïve to think you can change society by a photograph or anything else... I equate that with propaganda; I think that's a lower rank of purpose.

Nobody should touch a Polaroid [camera] until he's over sixty

I think there is a period of esthetic discovery that happens to a man and he can do all sorts of things at white heat.

What America needs is a political revolution.

I used to try to figure out precisely what I was seeing all the time, until I discovered that I didn't need to. If the thing is true, why there it is.

You see, a document has use, whereas art is really useless. Therefore art is never a document, although it can adopt that style.

... nature photographs downright bore me for some reason or other. I think: 'Oh, yes. Look at that sand dune. What of it?'

Do we know what we look like? Not really.

Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.