Joe McNally Photography Quotations

John Loengard, the picture editor at Life, always used to tell me, ”If you want something to look interesting, don’t light all of it.

If you view your life as a piece of fabric or a tapestry, the photography is the stitching. It keeps everything together.

A career in photography is a journey without a destination.

You’ve gotta taste the light, like my friend and fellow shooter Chip Maury says. And when you see light like this, trust me, it’s like a strawberry sundae with sprinkles.

We make pictures. At the end of the day, we create something potentially significant that did not exist at the beginning of the day. We go forward, despite the uncertainty. Because this is an act of love and passion, which defies reason and prudence.

Always remember to make room to shoot what you love. It's the only way to keep your heart beating as a photographer.

No matter how much crap you gotta plow through to stay alive as a photographer, no matter how many bad assignments, bad days, bad clients, snotty subjects, obnoxious handlers, wigged-out art directors, technical disasters, failures of the mind, body, and will, all the shouldas, couldas, and wouldas that befuddle our brains and creep into our dreams, always remember to make room to shoot what you love. It's the only way to keep your heart beating as a photographer.

Don’t pack up your camera until you’ve left the location.