If you’re a portrait photographer then you’re bound to have stunning photos that you’ll want to post to Instagram.
To save you the trouble of thinking up a caption yourself, I’ve put together this list of the best quotes about portrait photography from some of the most famous photographers around.
Just copy and paste the portrait photography quote straight into Instagram.
💡 I’ve even got some bonus captions for selfies and self-portraits at the end!
Best Portait Photography Quotes for Instagram Captions
“Portraits are about revealing aspects of an individual.”
– Kehinde Wiley
2. “If the photographer is interested in the people in front of his lens, and if he is compassionate, it’s already a lot. The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.”
– Eve Arnold
3. “In a portrait, you always leave part of yourself behind.”
– Mary Ellen Mark
4. “I like to photograph anyone before they know what their best angles are.”
– Ellen Von Unwerth
5. “Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.”
– Yousuf Karsh
As a portrait photographer, it’s important to always be striving to improve. Lots of people have been doing that by using the book below.
6. “What my portraits are made of? 10% showing the reality, 90% showing my philosophy. “
– Scuro Chiaro

7. “A portrait isn’t a fact but an opinion – an occasion rather than a truth.”
– Richard Avedon
8. “A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”
– Richard Avedon
9. “When a portrait evokes a feeling, then you’ve got something. Technique isn’t really important.”
– Bert Stern
10. “What I want is a believable moment. What I do in all my portraits is to try to stay out of it. I try to catch people the way they are.”
– Unknown
11. “When you take a photograph of someone, you take a portrait of their soul. “
– Winna Efendi
12. “The eyes are the window to the soul”
– Unknown
13. “In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view. The image may not be literally what’s going on, but it’s representative.”
– Annie Leibovitz
14. “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.”
– Diane Arbus

15. “A good portrait ought to tell something of the subject’s past and suggest something of his future.”
– Bill Brandt
16. “The dog is the perfect portrait subject. He doesn’t pose. He isn’t aware of the camera.”
– Patrick Demarchelier
17. “A portrait is not made in the camera but on either side of it.”
– Edward Steichen
18. “If you wait, people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view.”
– Steve McCurry
19. “Portraits are the most intimate photographs. The image will survive the subject.”
– Victor Skrebneski

20. “The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.”
– Andy warhol
21. “In a portrait, I’m looking for the silence in somebody.”
– Henri Cartier-Bresson
22. “A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.”
– Annie Leibovitz
23. “I love the people I photograph. I mean, they’re my friends. I’ve never met most of them or I don’t know them at all, yet through my images I live with them.”
– Bruce Gilden
24. “When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.”
— Annie Leibovitz
25. “Great photography is about depth of feeling, not depth of field.”
Peter Adams
Selfie / Self-portrait Captions and Quotes
Here’s some captions and quotes for your selfies and self portraits!
- It’s just me, myself and I
- It’s “Selfie Sunday!”
- Self-portraits are a way of revealing something about oneself.
- If you want to find out about your insecurities, take a self-portrait.
- I have no selfie control.
- It’s just me, my selfie and I.
- The self-portrait is an act of objectifying the self and in that regard is a unique form of portraiture.
- All my images are self-portraits, even when I’m not in them.
Hopefully, some of these quotes have inspired you to get out there and take some amazing portrait photos.
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