The question of where to stand

Port Dover, Ontario 2009

“The question of where to stand is interesting. What we’re really talking about is a vantage point. If you look at amateurs or people taking pictures, they do funny things. Most people obviously don’t know where to stand. They’re standing too close, they’re contorted. They’re humorous to watch, people who photograph, especially people who aren’t in tune with their equipment, because they don’t know when they pick it up what it will do. If you work with the same equipment for a long time, you get more in tune to what is possible. But within that there are still surprises. But using a camera day after day after day, within a framework I’ll do the same thing. I’ll back up and I’ll go forward with my body.

You don’t have to be a fancy photographer to learn where to stand. Basically you’re stuck with the frame and just like the person taking a picture of his family, who needs to go half a foot back—well, he doesn’t step half a foot back—but on the other hand, he knows where to be if he hits it right. Now when you watch tennis you not only have the commentators, you have the best of the old pros. You know how they repeatedly say “Look at the way his back was formed when he took that shot.” it is really important to them. They see that as a possibility of where the thing went. Probably the same thing is true of all of us.”

—Lee Friedlander