Sam Abell Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“The best lesson I was given is that all of life teaches, especially if we have that expectation.”

“I was known as a 35-mm photographer with a view-camera mentality.”

“There are a lot of ways to be expressive in life, but I wasn't good at some of them. Music, for instance. I was a distinct failure with the cello. Eventually, my parents sold the cello and bought a vacuum cleaner. The sound in our home improved.”

“Editorial photography has to be energetic and visually competitive.”

“My father taught me photography. It was his hobby, and we had a small darkroom in the fruit cellar of our basement. It was the kind of makeshift darkroom that was only dark at night.”

“My parents, grandmother and brother were teachers. My mother taught Latin and French and was the school librarian. My father taught geography and a popular class called Family Living, the precursor to Sociology, which he eventually taught. My grandmother was a beloved one-room school teacher at Knob School, near Sonora in Larue County, Ky.”

“I think of myself as a writer who photographs. Images, for me, can be considered poems, short stories or essays. And I've always thought the best place for my photographs was inside books of my own creation.”

“When I first went to 'National Geographic,' I thought I was the least qualified person to step through the doors. But because of my parents and the culture of continual learning they imposed on us, I later came to believe I was the most qualified person who ever worked there.”

“My dad had been an ardent amateur photographer, and he taught me to compose a photograph from the back to the front, and then populate the picture.”

“I had luck, but I worked hard and I suffered. It's not just photography I'm talking about. It's about whatever dream you want it to be.”