Top 11 Quotes & Sayings by Marc Riboud

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French photographer Marc Riboud.

Last updated on April 18, 2025.

Marc Riboud was a French photographer, best known for his extensive reports on the Far East: The Three Banners of China, Face of North Vietnam, Visions of China, and In China.

French - Photographer | June 24, 1923 - August 30, 2016

Source: Wikipedia

Rather than a profession, photography has always been a passion for me, a passion closer to an obsession.

Marc Riboud

The idea of photography as evidence is pure bullshit. A photo is no more proof of any reality than what you may hear being said by someone in a bus. We only record details, small fragments of the world.

Marc Riboud

I'm often asked: Did you get what you wanted? But how should I know what I wanted? A photo is an encounter, a surprise.

Marc Riboud

My first reaction at the very idea of this interview was to refuse to talk about photography. Why dissect and comment a process that is essentially a spontaneous reaction to a surprise?

Marc Riboud

Photography is about savoring life at 1/100th of a second.

Marc Riboud

For me photography is not an intellectual process. It is a visual one.... Whether we like it or not, we are involved in a sensual business.

Marc Riboud

Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.

Marc Riboud

The eye is made to see and not to think.... A good photograph is a surprise. How could we plan and foresee a surprise? We just have to be ready.

Marc Riboud

Photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world, especially when it changes.

Marc Riboud

Choice or freedom of choice is just an existential concern. But for photographers, it's a lifetime's preoccupation.

Marc Riboud

Doubt always hovers nearby, but I take photographs the way a musician hums. Looking is like breathing. So when luck turns my way and offers me a good picture, joy is surely nigh.

Marc Riboud

Top 11 Quotes & Sayings by Marc Riboud

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