To compose the photograph, an extraneous frame is placed on the vista, eliminating everything except what is featured on the rectangle of the ground glass. That rectangle becomes its own entirety, its edges, the borders to that world. However formally neat and pleasing, within that rectal rectangle lurks anarchy, for what is envisioned as a still print is a photograph of a dynamic scene overflowing with details. That landscape is a world in flux whose elements—light, water, air, mud—are in perpetual motion, with such superabundance they surpass our visual acuity. So, the composition will always be compromised, and as such, composed with the human touch.

— Michael Collins