In my portraits I try to avoid the fleeting expression and vivacity of a snapshot.

If there is any method in the way I take pictures, I believe it lies in this: See the subject first. Do not try to force it to be a picture of this, that or the other thing. Stand apart from it. Then something will happen. The subject will reveal itself.

But I did not always know just what it was I wanted to photograph. I believe it is important for a photographer to discover this, for unless he finds what it is that excites him, what it is that calls forth at once an emotional response, he is unlikely to achieve his best work.

Photographers should follow their own judgment, and not the fads and dictates of others.

The photographer must possess and preserve the receptive faculties of a child who looks at the world for the first time.

A good nude photograph can be erotic, but certainly not sentimental or pornographic.

I consider it essential that the photographer should do his own printing and enlarging. The final effect of the finished print depends so much on these operations.