Eagle – © John Neel

The act of seeing can happen anywhere.

Many people dream of going to a far away place to find the exotic as subject for their work. However, one of the most difficult things to photograph is what we might very well find in our own back yards.

Here are a few quotes to inspire us to look at the things in our immediate surroundings.

If we learn to see what is all around us, we might be surprised at what we will find.

The act of photography isn’t about finding the exotic in far away places. Rather, it is about finding your world in the place where you are.

“I enjoy traveling and recording faraway places and people with my camera. But I also find it wonderfully rewarding to see what I can discover outside my own window. You only need to study the scene with the eyes of a photographer.” – Alfred Eisenstadt

“The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes” – Marcel Proust 

Hoodie – © John Neel

“If your photos aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough” – Robert Capa

“Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn’t photogenic.” – Edward Weston

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” –Elliott Erwitt

“In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject. The little, human detail can become a Leitmotiv.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Dress – © John Neel

“I suspect it is for one’s self-interest that one looks at one’s surroundings and one’s self. This search is personally born and is indeed my reason and motive for making photographs.” – Lee Friedlander

“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.” – Ernst Haas

Couple – © John Neel

“If you see something you have seen before, don’t click the shutter.” – Alexey Brodovitch

“To interest people in faraway places to shock them, delight them is not too difficult. But the most difficult thing is in your own country.” Henri Cartier-Bresson

“The act of photography isn’t about finding the exotic in far away places. Rather, it is about finding your world in the place where you are.” – John 

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Please have a look at some of my other posts here.

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