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

I am not interested in rules or conventions. Photography is not a sport.

A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere.

No amount of toying with shades of print or with printing papers will transform a commonplace photograph into anything other than a commonplace photograph.

The vital elements are often momentary, change-sent things ... a gleam of light on water, a trail of smoke from a passing train, a cat crossing the threshold. Sometimes they are a matter of luck, sometimes of patience, waiting for an effect to be repeated that you have seen. It is usually some incidental detail that heightens the effect of a picture, stressing a pattern, deepening the sense of atmosphere.

The good photographer will produce a competent picture every time whatever his subject. But only when his subject makes and immediate and direct appeal to his own interests will he produce a work of distinction.

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