Quotes about camera
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Donald J. Trump photo
Woody Guthrie photo

“Here's your quote: "Thomas Pynchon loved this book, almost as much as he loves cameras!"
Hey, over here! Have your picture taken with a reclusive author! Today only, we'll throw in a free autograph! But wait, there's more!”

Thomas Pynchon (1937) American novelist

Playing himself (depicted with a paper bag over his head) on an episode of The Simpsons, "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife".

David Silverman photo
Noam Chomsky photo
Ilana Mercer photo

“In Cool Britannia, the moniker the Island acquired in the times of trendy Tony Blair, the only way disarmed Britons may shoot a savage is with … a camera.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"Jihad's Triumph On Westminster Bridge" https://townhall.com/columnists/ilanamercer/2017/03/30/jihads-triumph-on-westminster-bridge-n2306480 Townhall.com, March 30, 2017
2010s, 2017

Benjamín Netanyahu photo
Ian Holloway photo
Robert Rauschenberg photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Jerry Coyne photo
James Marsters photo
Chuck Jones photo
Shelley Long photo

“I'm not as klutzy as I used to be… I've had visual therapy and all kinds of things to help, but I still wrap my purse around chair legs when I stand up to leave. I do ridiculous things on camera because I do them in my life all the time.”

Shelley Long (1949) actress

Quoted in "Funny Ladies: The Best Humor from America's Funniest Women", p. 7 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KOVGUVYj2XUC&pg=PA7&dq=%22I'm+not+as+klutzy+as+I+used+to+be%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Jfz6Tt78KpSm8gPfwpXeCA&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22I'm%20not%20as%20klutzy%20as%20I%20used%20to%20be%22&f=false

Charlie Beck photo

“The LAPD is still haunted by one of the most notorious police beatings ever caught on camera, the assault on Rodney King, which resulted in ferocious riots more than 20 years ago. It’s a big reason why LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who wears his body camera on his chest, is eager for his department to embrace this technology.”

Charlie Beck (1953) Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department

[December 5, 2014, http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/police-departments-buying-body-cams-officers-recording/story?id=27003287&singlePage=true, Police Departments Are Buying Body Cams, and Officers Don't Have to Tell You When They're Recording, December 18, 2014, ABC News, David Wright, Victoria Thompson, Lauren Effron]
About

Camille Paglia photo
Hideo Kojima photo
Tobin Bell photo
Rani Mukerji photo
Charles Stross photo

“That's the cheapest camera you can buy and we've totally outgunned NASA and SETI (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Totally outgunned them!”

James Gilliland (1952) American academic and author

James talking about the UFO he recorded using a camera, and comparing his recording to NASA's and SETI's.

Russell Brand photo
Ben Croshaw photo

“I rolled my eyes at Rose, but she returned the look with a scowl which suggested that, if we ever got out of this alive, she would have some issues to address with myself and my polaroid camera.”

Ben Croshaw (1983) English video game journalist

Source: Fullyramblomatic Novels, Articulate Jim: A Search For Something, Chapter Nine

Roman Vishniac photo

“The purpose of photography is the transmission of a visualized sector of life through the medium of the camera into a mental process that starts with the photographer's thinking about the subject he photographs and is continued in the mind of the spectator.”

Roman Vishniac (1897–1990) American photographer

Deschin, Jacob. "Nature as it is". New York Times (1857-Current file); Feb 3, 1952; Proquest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2002) pg. X14

Louis C.K. photo
Melania Trump photo

“You can see from the tape, the cameras were not on—it was only a mic. And I wonder if they even knew that the mic was on. Because they were kind of, ah, boy talk. And he was led on. Like egg on from the host to say, uh, dirty and bad stuff.”

Melania Trump (1970) Slovenian model, wife of Donald Trump and First Lady of the United States

Regarding the leaked Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump and Billy Bush; Interview with Anderson Cooper http://time.com/4534216/melania-donald-trump-billy-bush-boy-talk/ (October 17, 2016)

Philip K. Dick photo
Alfred Horsley Hinton photo

“… it may suggest whether a negative made by camera and lens is always an essential, or indeed if a negative at all is needed so long as we can produce a light-painted image at our will.”

Alfred Horsley Hinton (1863–1908) British photographer

Source: Part II : Practical Pictorial Photography, Fidelity to nature and justifiable untruth, p. 24

Margaret Cho photo
Don DeLillo photo

“We drove 22 miles into the country around Farmington. There were meadows and apple orchards. White fences trailed through the rolling fields. Soon the sign started appearing. THE MOST PHOTOGRAPHED BARN IN AMERICA. We counted five signs before we reached the site. There were 40 cars and a tour bus in the makeshift lot. We walked along a cowpath to the slightly elevated spot set aside for viewing and photographing. All the people had cameras; some had tripods, telephoto lenses, filter kits. A man in a booth sold postcards and slides -- pictures of the barn taken from the elevated spot. We stood near a grove of trees and watched the photographers. Murray maintained a prolonged silence, occasionally scrawling some notes in a little book. "No one sees the barn," he said finally. A long silence followed. "Once you've seen the signs about the barn, it becomes impossible to see the barn." He fell silent once more. People with cameras left the elevated site, replaced by others. We're not here to capture an image, we're here to maintain one. Every photograph reinforces the aura. Can you feel it, Jack? An accumulation of nameless energies." There was an extended silence. The man in the booth sold postcards and slides. "Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender. We see only what the others see. The thousands who were here in the past, those who will come in the future. We've agreed to be part of a collective perception. It literally colors our vision. A religious experience in a way, like all tourism."”

Another silence ensued. "They are taking pictures of taking pictures," he said.”
White Noise (1984)

Bill Clinton photo

“What we have to do now is not to forget these people and places when all the cameras are not there. I think that’s the most important message I can say to the American people right now.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

While touring tsunami-devastated areas with his presidential predecessor, George H. W. Bush, February 2005[citation needed]
2000s

Conor Oberst photo

“Yeah, I was a postcard, I was a record
I was a camera until I went blind”

Conor Oberst (1980) American musician

train under water
I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (2005)

Clay Aiken photo

“I think I've broken three (tha-ree) cameras today!”

Clay Aiken (1978) singer-songwriter, actor, record producer

—Rolling Stone photo shoot

“Don't you think that it's amazing that I'm singing into this silly camera with the desk lamp, and it's going through all these wires and everything else, and these computers, and you still feel what I'm feeling, and you still get what I'm trying to do?”

Ysabella Brave (1979) American singer

"This Just In!" (30 January 2007)
Context: Don't you think that it's amazing that I'm singing into this silly camera with the desk lamp, and it's going through all these wires and everything else, and these computers, and you still feel what I'm feeling, and you still get what I'm trying to do? Yeah. I think its amazing. And I think it's so nice in a period when we're very isolated people, and kind of emotionless people, I think it's great that we can still touch one another and we can still feel what we're feeling, and we can still have fun, and we can be sad, and we can be happy, and to know that someone cares about you — because I really do. I really do.
And I can't believe that I have over 10,000 subscribers. What is wrong with you people?

Donald J. Trump photo

“Those cameras are not going on the move unless we have a protester. If we had a protester that’s the only time they move because they’re showing something that in their mind is a bad thing, so then they move.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2016, August, Speech at rally in Wilmington, North Carolina (August 9, 2016)
Context: Those cameras are not going on the move unless we have a protester. If we had a protester that’s the only time they move because they’re showing something that in their mind is a bad thing, so then they move. But I like that, I’ve always liked my protesters because the cameras show these massive crowds and people say wow, was that a big crowd.

“The way we see things is constantly changing. At the moment the way we see things has been left a lot to the camera. That shouldn't necessarily be.”

David Hockney (1937) British artist

From a series of interviews with Marco Livingstone (April 22 - May 7, 1980 and July 6 - 7, 1980) quoted in Livingstone's David Hockney (1981) , p. 112
1980s
Context: When conventions are old, there's quite a good reason, it's not arbitrary. So Picasso discovered that, as it were, and I'm sure that for him that was probably almost as exciting as discovering Cubism, rediscovering conventions of ordinary appearance, one-point perspective or something. The purists think you're going backwards, but I know you'd go forward. Future art that is based on appearances won't look like the art that's gone before. Even revivals of a period are not the same. The Renaissance is not the same as ancient Greece; the Gothic revival is not the same as Gothic. It might look like that at first, but you can tell it's not. The way we see things is constantly changing. At the moment the way we see things has been left a lot to the camera. That shouldn't necessarily be.

Susan Sontag photo

“Reality has come to seem more and more like what we are shown by cameras.”

"The Image-World", p. 161
On Photography (1977)
Context: Reality has come to seem more and more like what we are shown by cameras. It is common now for people to insist upon their experience of a violent event in which they were caught up — a plane crash, a shoot-out, a terrorist bombing — that "it seemed like a movie." This is said, other descriptions seeming insufficient, in order to explain how real it was. While many people in non-industrialized countries still feel apprehensive when being photographed, divining it to be some kind of trespass, an act of disrespect, a sublimated looting of the personality or the culture, people in industrialized countries seek to have their photographs taken — feel that they are images, and are made real by photographs.

Michelangelo Antonioni photo

“Everything depends on what you put in front of the camera, what perspectives you create, contrasts, colors.”

Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007) Italian film director and screenwriter

Encountering Directors interview (1969)
Context: Everything depends on what you put in front of the camera, what perspectives you create, contrasts, colors. The cameraman can do great things, provided he is well grounded technically. If a person hasn't the raw material, I obviously couldn't do anything with him. But all I ask of a cameraman is technical experience. Everything else is up to me. I was amazed to find that in America cameramen are surprised that this is the way I work.

Bill Bailey photo
Walker Evans photo
J.M. DeMatteis photo

“All of a sudden the Unconscious Camera turns on, a movie starts playing in my head-and there it is: The Big Moment. Or the Whole Damn Story. And, in many ways, I had nothing whatsoever to do with it.”

J.M. DeMatteis (1953) comics illustrator

A Conversation With The Legendary J.M. DeMatteis! (2004)
Context: I’ve realized over the years that, with rare exceptions, most writer’s block isn’t writer’s block at all: It’s necessary time that allows the unconscious mind to do its deep work. The great “Ah-Ha!” moments don’t usually come at the keyboard. They come when I’m lying on the floor, staring into space (or banging my head against the wall in frustration). All of a sudden the Unconscious Camera turns on, a movie starts playing in my head-and there it is: The Big Moment. Or the Whole Damn Story. And, in many ways, I had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Eric R. Kandel photo

“Klimt sought newer truths that could not be captured by the camera. He… turned the artists view inward”

Eric R. Kandel (1929) American neuropsychiatrist

The Age of Insight (2012)
Context: Like other modern artists faced with the advent of the photography, Klimt sought newer truths that could not be captured by the camera. He... turned the artists view inward—away from the three-dimensional outside world and toward the multidimensional inner self and the unconscious mind.

Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar photo
Dadasaheb Phalke photo
Waheeda Rehman photo

“Everyone is born for something. This girl was born for the camera.”

Waheeda Rehman (1938) Indian actress

Quoted in "Guru Dutt was my mentor: Waheeda."

Satyajit Ray photo
Rajinikanth photo
Kamal Haasan photo
Luise Rainer photo
Dylan Moran photo
Chuck Palahniuk photo
Steve Jobs photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Léa Seydoux photo

“When I decided to make the film [Blue Is the Warmest Colour], I knew that it was going to be hard. I think I wanted that. I wanted to see how it was to go this far. […] Of course it was kind of humiliating sometimes, I was feeling like a prostitute. […] [Kechiche] was using three cameras, and when you have to fake your orgasm for six hours... I can't say that it was nothing. But for me it is more difficult to show my feelings than my body.”

Léa Seydoux (1985) French actress

"Blue is the Warmest Colour actresses on their lesbian sex scenes: 'We felt like prostitutes'" https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/blue-is-the-warmest-colour-actresses-on-their-lesbian-sex-scenes-we-felt-like-prostitutes-8856909.html, The Independent (4 October 2013).

Keiran Lee photo
Jackson Browne photo
Miri Yu photo

“As a novelist, my job is to play a role as an endoscope to look inside of a person, while also showing him or her with an external camera.”

Miri Yu (1968) Zainichi Korean writer

As quoted in "Novelist Yu Miri: Olympics not helping Fukushima rebuilding" in ABC News (23 December 2020) https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/novelist-yu-miri-olympics-helping-fukushima-rebuilding-74877816

Viktor Pinchuk photo

“A trip without a camera to the African tribes for me is the same as giving a person who has lost both legs the boots he once dreamed of.”

Press interview quotes
Source: Yu. Lykova «Viktor Pinchuk: love of travel is innate» — Svejaya gazeta (Fresh newspaper): newspaper. — 1.11.2007. — № 44 (61)

Cui Jian photo

“To be the person stand behind the camera observing other people is really interesting, it gives me a great sense of freedom.”

Cui Jian (1961) Chinese rock musician of Korean descent

"The Long March of Cui Jian" in SBS (December 2015) https://www.sbs.com.au/news/feature/long-march-cui-jian

Rima Das photo

“No one can teach you how to compose a shot. You are only guided by an instinct. It has to come from within. I learned cinema by working on my films. The best thing was that I bought my own camera, and since I was working on the digital medium, I had the freedom to experiment, shoot more.”

Rima Das (1982) Indian Assamese film maker

SilverScreenIndia Article - Making A Zero Budget Movie: The Tale Of Assamese Filmmaker Rima Das’s ‘Village Rockstars’ - 20 November 2017 https://silverscreenindia.com/movies/features/interviews/making-a-zero-budget-movie-the-tale-of-assamese-filmmaker-rima-dass-village-rockstars/ - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210728183808/https://silverscreenindia.com/movies/features/interviews/making-a-zero-budget-movie-the-tale-of-assamese-filmmaker-rima-dass-village-rockstars/

Lulu Wang photo

“There's so little representation of people who look like me behind the camera that it makes you want to say yes to any opportunity out of desperation. It puts you in a situation where you can't make your best work. Diversity for cheap.”

Lulu Wang (1983) Asian-American filmmaker

As quoted in "Lulu Wang Spots the Lie The director of the Sundance sensation The Farewell has made the kind of movie Hollywood never makes." in Vulture (1 July 2019) https://www.vulture.com/2019/07/lulu-wang-the-farewell-profile.html

“I don’t know, maybe it’s a family trait, when I get in front of the camera, I just kind of go for it and it works out.”

Alan Nursall Canadian journalist

Voyage of Discovery https://edifyedmonton.com/people/profiles/voyage-of-discovery/ (February 11, 2010)

Nicolas Cage photo