Some photographs are like a Chekhov short story or a Maupassant story. They're quick things and there's a whole world in them. But one is unconscious of it while shooting.

Photography is like fencing. You must keep your distance, wait, and then thrust.

What reinforces the content of a photograph is the sense of rhythm - the relationship between shapes and values.

I'm always amused by the idea that certain people have about technique, which translate into an immoderate taste for the sharpness of the image. It is a passion for detail, for perfection, or do they hope to get closer to reality with this trompe I'oeil? They are, by the way, as far away from the real issues as other generations of photographers were when they obscured their subject in soft-focus effects.

As far as I am concerned, taking photographs is a means of understanding which cannot be separated from other means of visual expression. It is a way of shouting, of freeing oneself, not of proving or asserting one's own originality. It is a way of life.

Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important.

One has to tiptoe lightly and steal up to one's quarry; you don't swish the water when you are fishing.