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At Work
Work, work, work - no one understands work better than Lee Friedlander. Since the early 1960s he has been a tireless observer and chronicler of the world around him, his photographic work making him one of America's most influential photographers. His photographic descriptions of the world break apart our accepted visual relationships, showing us entirely unexpected scenes. Friedlander's photographs have given us back the mundane bits and pieces of our own lives in an entirely new order.
In this collection of photographs we see the world of industrial work refracted through the Friedlander lens. Over a period of 16 years he did his own work amongst American workers in locations as diverse as factories, offices, telemarketing centers, and corporate offices. Some of his work gathered here was commissioned by curators, some by corporate CEOs, but all the images re-align the world of work for the rest of us, showing us relationships between objects, people, and places that would escape a less idiosyncratic observer.
In this collection of photographs we see the world of industrial work refracted through the Friedlander lens. Over a period of 16 years he did his own work amongst American workers in locations as diverse as factories, offices, telemarketing centers, and corporate offices. Some of his work gathered here was commissioned by curators, some by corporate CEOs, but all the images re-align the world of work for the rest of us, showing us relationships between objects, people, and places that would escape a less idiosyncratic observer.
- GenresArt
96 pages, Hardcover
First published August 2, 2002
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About the author
Lee Friedlander
110 books12 followersLee Friedlander is a seminal American photographer known for his innovative images of city streets. Often featuring candid portraits of people, signs, and reflections of himself in store front windows, Friedlander’s street photography captures the unexpected overlaps of light and content in urban landscapes. “I’m not a premeditative photographer,” he has said. “You don’t have to go looking for pictures. The material is generous. You go out and the pictures are staring at you.”
Born on July 14, 1934 in Aberdeen, WA, he studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena before moving to New York in 1956. Influenced by the work of Eugène Atget and Walker Evans, he attempted to see things as if a step removed, spontaneously reacting to all the potential images in front of him. Along with Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand, Friedlander was represented in the historic “New Documents” exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1967, curated by John Szarkowski. He went on to publish his acclaimed photobook The American Monument in 1976. More recently, in 2010, Friedlander published America by Car, a book which was accompanied by an exhibition at the Whitney Museum and featured a series of photos that were taken on road trips from behind the wheel of rental cars. The artist continues to live and work in New York, NY. Today, his photographs are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among others.
Born on July 14, 1934 in Aberdeen, WA, he studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena before moving to New York in 1956. Influenced by the work of Eugène Atget and Walker Evans, he attempted to see things as if a step removed, spontaneously reacting to all the potential images in front of him. Along with Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand, Friedlander was represented in the historic “New Documents” exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1967, curated by John Szarkowski. He went on to publish his acclaimed photobook The American Monument in 1976. More recently, in 2010, Friedlander published America by Car, a book which was accompanied by an exhibition at the Whitney Museum and featured a series of photos that were taken on road trips from behind the wheel of rental cars. The artist continues to live and work in New York, NY. Today, his photographs are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, among others.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 24, 2012
Lee Friedlander is great, of course - the book is a good documentary of Americana and the theme Americans at work
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