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Marti Friedlander: In her own words

Marti Friedlander: In her own words

by David Cohen

Published in The Listener, 02 October, 2004

Republished on Noted, 2016


Acclaimed photographer Marti Friedlander passed away on November 14, aged 88. She talked to the Listener's David Cohen in 2004 about being Jewish, a control freak and the crap written about photography.

When I saw myself for the first time in the new documentary, I thought, "My God, what an interesting, strong woman!" It was very interesting. I mean, I am not somebody who thinks about herself as being strong, though I suppose other people do.

I am somebody who lives in the moment and lives for the future. It's that that gives me my spirit, keeps me moving forward. Even in those first three years living in New Zealand [in the late 1950s] when I was so unhappy - the worst years of my life - even then I tried desperately to cope with the situation I was in. It was the only way I could survive. But they were hard years. Out of them I feel I've come to achieve something through adversity. It was a culture resistant to change and to people who were different, and that's why I thought I'd photograph them and photograph what I saw around me. Why? Because I knew it was going to change. It had to change.

Read full interview on Noted