The American photographer Lee Friedlander has been capturing the American social landscape since the 1950s, focusing on storefronts, signage, reflections, contradictions, and stubborn comedy. His latest book, Life Still, brings together over 130 images, most previously unpublished, in a sequence guided by his knack for uncanny association.
A Career of Observation
Friedlander prowled the streets of New York City with insatiable curiosity, and the city rewarded him with scenes that evoke our best ideas and better selves. As Peter Galassi, curator of Friedlander's 2005 career survey at the Museum of Modern Art, noted, the artist was 'adept at turning any scrap of junk into a lavish puzzle.'
Still Lifes and Mobility
In the mid-1990s, Friedlander began making more still lifes, inspired by the vases of freshly cut flowers his wife Maria placed around their home, but also ceding to the reality of aching knees. Surgery helped restore his mobility, but images made a decade later bear traces of the careful, quiet aptitude honed during that period.
Signs and Symbols
Friedlander is the first to acknowledge that encountering a sign for 'Hope auto repair' in a remote corner of Montana is a gift that keeps on giving, long after the film is exposed. Along with us, he chortles every time he sees it.
Technical Shifts
In the early 1990s, Friedlander made a significant shift, beginning to shoot with a Hasselblad Superwide in addition to his trusty Leica. The square format collapses space to emphasize the scene's inherent contrasts. Behind a drainage ditch clogged with debris, the Luxor casino rises; the stucco sphinx peers over the parking lot wall in a spectacle engineered for the frame, each element equally weighted and equally strange.
Bookmaking
Friedlander is a prolific bookmaker. For his first book, Self Portrait (1970), he and his wife Maria managed every detail of sequencing, design, and production. Ever since, Friedlander has played a central role in the conception and creation of his books. For Life Still, Friedlander, Stephanie Prussin, and Peter Kayafas pulled together work made across seven decades to create a sequence that both guides and surprises readers.
Recurring Motifs
Chain link fences are a leitmotif in Friedlander's career. They form screens and cast shadows, dividing space while remaining permeable, reminding us that we are looking at a two-dimensional description of a three-dimensional world.
Humility and Wit
Friedlander speaks of the medium with humility, as if his photographs are simply gifts he has been fortunate to receive, but the more closely we look, the more keenly we see just how carefully he guides us through the photograph into life itself. On the back cover of the book, an image captures Friedlander's signature wit and the quiet confidence with which he allows photographs to speak for themselves.
Deadpan Style
Friedlander's deadpan style is always revealing. Through careful framing and an astute eye for offbeat stylistic sensibilities, he makes the specific feel universal. Friedlander doesn't editorialize; he points and trusts we're all in on the joke.
Early Influences
While still a teenager, Friedlander moved from LA to New York to work as a freelance magazine photographer. There, he met Walker Evans and Robert Frank, two luminaries who helped a young Friedlander realize the creative potential of the medium. The postcard on a window sash in one image is from Evans's American Photographs, made in Boston in 1930 – a quiet nod to his mentor and friend.
All images courtesy of Lee Friedlander; Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco; and Luhring Augustine, New York. Captions from Sarah Meister, executive director of Aperture Foundation.
