Alexey Brodovitch: If you know yourself, you are doomed.

The creative life of the commercial photographer is like the life of a butterfly. Very seldom do we see a photographer who is really productive for more than eight or ten years.

Alexey Brodovitch

eight butterfly years

There is no recipe for good layout, what must be maintained is a feeling of change and contrast. A layout man should be simple with good photographs. He should perform acrobatics when the pictures are bad.

Alexey Brodovitch

simple feelings men

Surprise quality can be achieved in many ways. It may be produced by a certain stimulating geometrical relationship between elements in the picture or through the human interest of the situation photographed or by calling our attention to some commonplace but fascinating thing we have never noticed before or it can be achieved by looking at an everyday thing in a new interesting way.

Alexey Brodovitch

everyday-things photography interesting

The best way to achieve surprise quality is by avoiding cliches.

Alexey Brodovitch

quality surprise way

It is the end result that counts.

Alexey Brodovitch

results photography ends

It is every photographer's responsibility to discover new images and a new personal way of looking at things. If he can do this his pictures will command attention and have surprise quality.

Alexey Brodovitch

quality photography responsibility

When I say that a good picture has surprise quality or shock appeal, I do not mean that it is a loud or vulgar picture but, instead, that it stimulates my thinking and intrigues me.

Alexey Brodovitch

photography mean thinking

If you see something you have seen before, don't click the shutter.

Alexey Brodovitch

shutters clicks photography

The public is being spoiled by good technical quality photographs in magazines, on television, in the movies, and they have become bored. The disease of our age is this boredom and a good photographer must successfully combat it. The only way to do this is by invention - by surprise.

Alexey Brodovitch

boredom quality age

What is of value is that a particular photographer sees the subject differently than I do. A good picture must be a completely individual expression which intrigues the viewer and forces him to think.

Alexey Brodovitch

photography expression thinking

The photograph is not only a pictorial report; it is also a psychological report. It represents the feelings and point of view of the intelligence behind the camera.

Alexey Brodovitch

photography views feelings

Imitation is the greatest danger of the young [artist].

Alexey Brodovitch

imitation artist danger

Astonish me! (Instruction to photographers)

Alexey Brodovitch

photographer instruction

What is good today may be a cliche tomorrow.

Alexey Brodovitch

fashion may today

It is the unexpected and the surprise quality of a personal vision, rather than the emotion, which make people respond to a photograph.

Alexey Brodovitch

vision photography people

Outstanding past work in photography, and in fact in all the arts, is very important to today's photographers. But it should be used for inspiration and not for imitation. These works should be something to be built upon, not to be repeated.

Alexey Brodovitch

photography inspiration art

The personality and style of a photographer usually limits the type of subject with which he deals best. For example Cartier-Bresson is very interested in people and in travel; these things plus his precise feeling for geometrical relationships determine the type of pictures he takes best. What is of value is that a particular photographer sees the subject differently. A good picture must be a completely individual expression which intrigues the viewer and forces him to think.

Alexey Brodovitch

photography expression thinking

It is the photographer's decision at the two levels of seeing the picture - when it is shot and when it is chosen and printed that determines his personal style.

Alexey Brodovitch

photography decision two

Photographers should make three or four prints from one negative and then crop them differently. When I was art director at Harper's Bazaar and at several agencies as a consultant, young photographers would bring me their portfolios and all the prints would be in the same standard proportions, either for the Leica or the Rolleiflex. Many times, by limiting themselves in this way, they missed the true potentialities of their photographs.

Alexey Brodovitch

agency photography art

When the novice photographer starts taking pictures, he carries his camera about and shoots everything that interests him. There comes a time when he must crystallize his ideas and set off in an particular direction. He must learn that shooting for the sake of shooting is dull and unprofitable.

Alexey Brodovitch

photography sake ideas