The intensive use of photographs by mass media lays ever fresh responsibilities upon the photographer. We have to acknowledge the existence of a chasm between the economic needs of our consumer society and the requirements of those who bear witness to this epoch. This affects us all, particularly the younger generations of photographers. We must take greater care than ever not to allow ourselves to be separated from the real world and from humanity.

Everyone has got some preconceptions, but you have to readjust them in front of reality. Reality has the last word.

It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart and head.

Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.

Photography is only intuition, a perpetual interrogation - everything except a stage set.

The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality.

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.