2024 10 14
Another busted car. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Lee Friedlander is a favorite of mine. I stumbled upon this nice video, linked below, while avoiding watching football on Sunday afternoon. While I’ve always been attracted to Friendlander’s images, I haven’t put much effort into getting to know the man. That’s the case for me, generally, when it comes to historic photographer figures. I think a part of it is a worry that getting to know them as people will take away a bit of the magic. Perhaps it’s that I’m lazy and making excuses.
“Art is too big a word for me. It has too many letters in it.”
Lee was a bit of a rascal, it seems, which shows in his work and gives it personality. I often wonder what it is that gives talented photographers an edge and makes their work stand out. I also often wonder if my special skills aren’t accidental and knowing more about the craft and its masters will only reveal me as a fraud. As I get older, I’m coming to realize this is self-sabotage and I would be better served knowing, learning from, and embracing the people I am most impressed with.
“It seems to me if you had the answer why ask the question? The thing is there are so many questions. I wonder what it is going to look like if I stand here or if I stand there. I don’t know. If fifty years of doing it meant that every time you picked up the camera you made a good one you wouldn’t have to take many. I make a lot of stupid pictures. Most of them are stupid because I’m trying to figure where to be or where to focus. I don’t think the problems area any different now. I grow wiser as time passes only because I know a little bit more about what is possible, only because I’ve done it for so long. I am used to being a craftsman. But maybe it’s not that. Maybe it’s infatuation. Age has no patent on infatuation.”
It would be smart of me to start a casual little series of posts investigating works of other photographers. This youtube channel is a great starting point, as Graeme is clearly full of knowledge and has a great eye for strong images. I previously wrote about his video covering another favorite, Nadav Kander (see: 2024 04 01). Now I just need to make some better images to go along with these posts about the all-time greats.
Additionally, this interview was where I pulled the two quotes and is worth a read.
-Clayton
