Lee Friedlander made complexity feel like a method rather than a problem. The quotes below point to the same thing his photographs do: the frame is always busier, stranger, and more intelligent than it first appears.
At first, my presence in my photos was fascinating and disturbing.
The camera is not a mirror.
The world is never simple in a frame.
I suspect I look at my surroundings for self-interest.
I work with what is there.
Chaos is part of the picture.
I add a giggle to those feelings.
Photography is a way of thinking with the eye.
I make pictures to see what I am doing.
The photograph is never exactly the mirror on the wall.
Friedlander is a useful antidote to tidy ideas about composition. His quotes keep reminding photographers that clutter, reflection, and self-awareness are not distractions from the picture. They are often the picture.
