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A Very Big Part Of The Life Of A Photograph Is The Afterlife.
-Sam Abell
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A Very Big Part

Sam Abell
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A Very Big Part Of The Life Of A Photograph Is The Afterlife.

Understanding the Quote: "a very big part of the life of a photograph is the..."

This quote by Sam Abell reflects deeply on the theme of afterlife. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Afterlife, Photograph, Bigs, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Sam Abell interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Sam Abell

Sam Abell is celebrated for insightful thoughts on afterlife and photograph. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Afterlife
Photograph
Bigs
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My Connection To Santa Fe Is Very Closely, And Continuously A Connection With Reid. I Believe In Him And His Philosophy Of Photographic Education.
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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.
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Actually, Ambition Won't Get You That Far. You'll Shift Gears. You'll See Something That's Shinier. But If You Believe... Then You're The Long-distance Runner.
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In The Last Workshop I Taught, A Woman Flew In From Thailand. She's A Medical Doctor In Bangkok. I Asked Her In Her One-on-one Session Where She Wanted Photography To Be In Her Life.did She Want A Second Career? Was It About Earning Money? Or Was It Art? And She Said "none Of Those. I Want Photography To Be Serious In My Life." It Would Be Like Someone Wanting Music, Like Piano Playing, To Be A Richer, Deeper, And Maybe Even Harder Experience.
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My First Priority When Taking Pictures Is To Achieve Clarity. A Good Documentary Photograph Transmits The Information Of The Situation With The Utmost Fidelity; Achieving It Means Understanding The Nuances Of Lighting And Composition, And Also Remembering To Keep The Lenses Clean And The Cameras Steady.
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I Was Asked By A Student What My Most Significant Accomplishment Was At National Geographic, After Thirty Years, And I Said That My Career Came To An Appropriate Close, And I Still Loved Photography. Not Everybody Who Spends Their Career At Anything Ends Up Fascinated And Involved With It.
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Typically I See It With Photographers Who Go To A Place Like India Or Nepal, And Everything's So Colorful And Exotic And They Think, Therefore, A Picture's Been Taken.
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"you Know You Are Seeing Such A Photograph If You Say To Yourself, "i Could Have Taken That Picture. I've Seen Such A Scene Before, But Never Like That." It Is The Kind Of Photography That Relies For Its Strengths Not On Special Equipment Or Effects But On The Intensity Of The Photographer's Seeing. It Is The Kind Of Photography In Which The Raw Materials-light, Space, And Shape-are Arranged In A Meaningful And Even Universal Way That Gives Grace To Ordinary Objects."
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I Did A Story For The Geographic On Meriwether Lewis And William Clark, And Stephen Ambrose Was The Writer. He Said, "i've Got The Easiest Job In The World. I Just Have To Re-tell The Story Of The Greatest Fishing, Camping, Hunting, Canoeing Trip Of All Time. You, Sam, Have The Hardest Job, Which Is, Pretend Like Nothing Has Happened In The Last 200 Years.
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For Spiritual Companions I Have Had The Many Artists Who Have Relied On Nature To Help Shape Their Imagination. And Their Most Elaborate Equipment Was A Deep Reverence For The World Through Which They Passed. Photographers Share Something With These Artists. We Seek Only To See And To Describe With Our Own Voices, And, Though We Are Seldom Heard As Soloists, We Cannot Photograph The World In Any Other Way.
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I Wanted Life To Be Episodic. I Wanted To Be A Magazine Photographer And I Was Willing To Do What It Took To Become That.
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I'm Interested In Smokers Standing On Ledges, And Big Box Stores, The Rise Of The Suburbs, And The Hollowing Out Of Small Towns. Self-storage. Things That Didn't Exist 50 Years Ago. Our Common Culture. What We Have Agreed Is Ok To Live With.
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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.
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That's Who Comes To My Workshops. I Jokingly Tell My Students That The Class Could Be Called "your Photographs: Better."
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First Of All, I Appropriate Photographs.in Presenting The Richard Prince Photograph I Tried To Be As Neutral As I Could Be. I Put Down The Fact Of It. I Wanted It To Be The Same Thing He Wanted It To Be, An Open Ended Invitation To Think About Authorship, And Who Owns A Created Work. So I Pair It With My Appropriated Picture.
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The Reason I Don't Want To Say Anything About It Is It Has A Strange Power To Take Over The Conversation. Just Like It's Doing With Us. I Was Asked To Participate In A Documentary About Richard Prince, And Be The Voice Of Someone Who Was Appropriated, And I Declined. The Reason I Did Is I Don't Want It To Be The Subject Of The Discussion Of My Work.
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I Would Like To Go To Antarctica. That's About All.
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And That Desire-the Strong Desire To Take Pictures-is Important. It Borders On A Need, Based On A Habit: The Habit Of Seeing. Whether Working Or Not, Photographers Are Looking, Seeing, And Thinking About What They See, A Habit That Is Both A Pleasure And A Problem, For We Seldom Capture In A Single Photograph The Full Expression Of What We See And Feel. It Is The Hope That We Might Express Ourselves Fully-and The Evidence That Other Photographers Have Done So-that Keep Us Taking Pictures.
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In My First Class At The University Of Kentucky, My American Literature Professor Came In, And The First Sentence Out Of His Mouth Was "the Central Theme Of American Literature Is An Attempt To Reconcile What We've Done To The New World." Wrote That Down In My Notebook, And Thought, "what Is He Talking About?" But That's What I Think About Now. The New World And What We've Done To It.
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There Are A Lot Of Ways To Talk About The Life Of A Photograph. You Can Talk About The Afterlife Of A Photograph, And In The End I Talk About That, With The Richard Prince Picture. But Mainly, What I Dedicated The Book To Being About Was How Photographs Begin Their Life, And Where They Begin It. And They Begin It With The Photographer's Imagination And Instinct And Experience.
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...just Like Some People's Instinct To Photograph Is Triggered By Vacation... Assignments Might Be That To Me And That's Why I've Built My Life Around Assignments. That Was The Way To Live The Photographic Life.
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The Neatest Part Of This Book I'm Working On - To Me - Are The Pictures That Show The Process... Because Photographers... Think Things Through And... It Isn't Luck, And It Isn't Random And It Isn't Accidental. It Isn't.
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I Was A Consultant For Kodak Back In The Late 80's. There Were Engineers There Who Told Me That In The Future, Most Photographs Would Be Taken On Telephones. They Weren't Able To Do Anything With That. They Were Engineers, Not Management.
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The Longer We Lived With It The More We Wanted Something Less About Process And More About Life.
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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.
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For Sheer Majestic Geography And Sublime Scale, Nothing Beats Alaska And The Yukon. For Culture, Japan. And For All-around Affection, Australia.
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Vivid
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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.
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Teacher
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