George Rodger Quotes

United Kingdom, Photographer
March 19, 1908 – July, 24, 1995.

George Rodger was a British photojournalist noted for his work in Africa and for photographing the mass deaths at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of the Second World War.

You must feel an affinity for what you are photographing. You must be part of it, and yet remain sufficiently detached to see it objectively. Like watching from the audience a play you already know by heart.

George Rodger
I had no contact with my contemporaries in the photographic field, nor even knowledge of their work. So I was influenced by no-one and there were no short cuts for me. I was self-taught the hard way, by trial and error.

George Rodger
- Error
- Trial
- Photographic

It wasn't even a matter of what I was photographing, as what had happened to me in the process. When I discovered that I could look at the horror of Belsen - 4000 dead and starving lying around - and think only of a nice photographic composition, I knew something had happened to me and I had to stop. I felt I was like the people running the camp - Nit didn't mean a thing.

George Rodger
- Stop
- Horror
- Composition
I may juggle the composition, as the strength of a picture is in the composition. Or I may play with the light. But I never interfere with the subject. The subject has to fall into place on its own and, if I don't like it, I don't have to print it.

George Rodger