Exploring themes of identity and perception, this collection features Lee Friedlander's unique approach to self-portraiture, focusing solely on shadows. The title nods to a classic 1930s radio show, inviting contemplation on the hidden aspects of human nature. Through this innovative lens, Friedlander challenges viewers to consider what lies beneath the surface, blending art and introspection in a thought-provoking manner.
The Human Clay
In the capstone volume of his epic series “The Human Clay,” Lee Friedlander has created an ode to people who work. Drawn from his incomparable archive are photographs of individuals laboring on the street and on stage, as well as in the field, in factories and in fluorescent-lit offices. Performers, salespeople and athletes alike are observed both in action and at rest by Friedlander’s uncanny eye. Opera singers are caught mid-aria, models primp backstage, mechanics tinker and telemarketers hustle. Spanning six decades, this humanizing compilation features over 250 photographs, many appearing here for the first time in print.
In this compendium, Lee Friedlander examines the ordinary pickup truck, a quintessentially American mode of transportation. Unadorned in form as well as function, pickups have long been the vehicle of choice for farmers and tradespeople. Their well-worn beds—usually open to the elements, laid bare for all to see—have held and hauled all manner of things, from spare tires and jumbles of wires to animals and the occasional person. Friedlander, in his witty and encompassing, clear-eyed idiom, has observed this most utilitarian and unapologetically personal object in its native setting: the cacophonous bricolage that is American social landscape.
A magnificent review of Lee Friedlander's life and career, shown through his self-portraiture Lee Friedlander (b. 1934) has been tackling the challenge of self-portraiture throughout his prolific career. What began as an unorthodox investigation of the genre has become a masterful engagement spanning five decades. In this extraordinary compilation, which includes hundreds of previously unpublished pictures, we follow the famous photographer through the years as his personal and creative lives unfold and intertwine. Produced to the highest production standards and featuring over 400 duotone images—from his first self-portraits, taken with cable release in hand, to recent images of the photographer with his family and extended network of friends—In the Picture explores Friedlander’s various guises throughout a rich and colorful life.
Lee Friedlander is celebrated for his ability to weave disparate elements from ordinary life into uncanny images of great formal complexity and visual wit. And few things have attracted his attention—or been more unpredictable in their effect—than the humble chain link fence. Erected to delineate space, form protective barriers and bring order to chaos, the fences in Friedlander’s pictures catch filaments of light, throw disconcerting shadows and visually interrupt scenes without fully occluding them. Sometimes the steel mesh seems as delicate as lace; at others it appears as tough as snakeskin. In this book’s 97 pictures, drawn from over four decades of work, it recurs as versatile, utilitarian and ubiquitous—not unlike the photographer himself.
Catalog of an exhibition held at the Seattle Art Museum, Mar. 23 to May 27, 1989, and at 9 other museums from summer 1989 to spring 1991.
