John Loengard Quotes

#1. Perishability in a photograph is important in a picture. If a photograph looks perishable we say, "Gee, I'm glad I have that moment."

John Loengard

#2. Teachers don't work in the summer, and photographers don't shoot in in the middle of the day.

John Loengard

#3. In my head I think, There is a beautiful picture here and by God, short of murder, I'm going to get it. So shut up and hold still! But what I say is: You look wonderful. It'll just take a minute. It's marvelous. We're doing something very special.

John Loengard

#4. Working alone on stories, I began to feel the anonymity of motels on interstate highways reached by jet planes and rental cars. It was hard to have a good time, and the only way I could make the loneliness excusable was by taking pictures I thought were very good, even valuable.

John Loengard

#5. Usually I think if there is something imperfect in a photograph it makes the picture more real. Photographs that are slick, smooth, and imperfect seem less honest to me.

John Loengard

#6. Often the tension that exists between the pictorial content of a photograph and its record of reality is the picture's true beauty.

John Loengard

#7. When I go to photograph somebody, they say, "What do you want me to do?" Those are the most frightening words in the English language. I want to say, "Please, go over into good light and do something unusual.

John Loengard

#8. A Ming vase can be well-designed and well-made and is beautiful for that reason alone. I don't think this can be true for photography. Unless there is something a little incomplete and a little strange, it will simply look like a copy of something pretty. We won't take an interest in it.

John Loengard

#9. There are two kinds of photographs: mine and other people's. I never think of what I might do myself when I look at someone else's pictures ... there is no subject in the world I have ever wanted to photograph. It's the picture, not the object, that is important to me.

John Loengard