There is only one optimist. He has been here since man has been on this earth, and that is man himself. If we hadn't had such a magnificent optimism to carry us through all these things, we wouldn't be here. We have survived it on our optimism.

When I first became interested in photography, I thought it was the whole cheese. My idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don't give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself.

The boy and girl going hand in hand through a meadow; the mother washing her baby; the sweet simple things in life. We have almost lost track of them.

When that shutter clicks, anything else that can be done afterward is not worth consideration.

Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.

Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face.

I was coming to realize that the real magician was light itself.