Lee Friedlander

inscribed 'To Alan From Lee' by the photographer in pencil on the reverse, matted, 1966

Gift of the photographer to Alan Distler, circa 1966

To his wife, Arlene Distler, 1991

Other prints of this image:

Peter Galassi, Friedlander (The Museum of Modern Art, 2005, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 120

Lee Friedlander (Valencia, Institut Valencia d'Art Modern, 1992, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 54

Self Portrait (New City, 1970), pl. 25

Rod Slemmons, Like a One-Eyed Cat: Photographs by Lee Friedlander 1956-1987 (Seattle Art Museum, 1989, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 20

James Lingwood, ed., Staging the Self: Self-Portrait Photography, 1840s - 1980s (London, 1987, in conjunction with the exhibition), unpaginated

Peter Weiermair and Gerald Matt, Americans: The Social Landscape from 1940 until 2006, Masterpieces of American Photography (Kunstalle Wien, 2006, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 54

After Art: Selections from the Joseph and Elaine Monsen Collection (University of Washington Press, 1994), p. 12

Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection (Boston, 1999), pl. 14

Tom E. Hinson, Catalogue of Photography: The Cleveland Museum of Art (The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996), p. 177

Therese Mulligan and David Wooters, Photography from 1839 to Today, George Eastman House (Taschen, 2000), p. 659 

This early, very slightly warm-toned print, on double-weight paper with a surface sheen, is in generally very good condition. There is wear and age-darkening at the margin edges, and the lower edge is unevenly trimmed, as is typical of the photographer's early prints. When examined in raking light, slight silvering is visible in the periphery, particularly at the upper right corner, as well as several barely noticeable pinpoint indentations not breaking the emulsion at the right side of the print and print margin. Also in raking light, the photographer's penciled inscription on the reverse is partially visible. None of these issues detract from this early print's overall attractive appearance.
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Writer Alan Distler (1929 - 1991) met Lee Friedlander in New City, New York, in the 1960s. The two men became friends, and Friedlander photographed Alan and Arlene Distler's New York City Hall wedding in 1968.  A 1969 portrait of the Distlers was included in Friedlander's retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in 2005 (reproduced in Friedlander, pl. 218).

In 1967, the image offered here was one of thirty Friedlander photographs chosen by John Szarkowski for the groundbreaking New Documents show at The Museum of Modern Art.  The exhibition showcased the work of three contemporary photographers—Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and Lee Friedlander—and charted a radical new direction in what had previously been thought of as 'documentary photography.' 

Self-portraits have had prominence in Friedlander's oeuvre since the 1960s.  The present image was included among 44 in Friedlander's 1970 self-published landmark volume, Self Portrait, which was reprinted by The Museum of Modern Art in 2005. Sly, ambiguous, and inventive, the photographer made liberal use of shadows and reflections. Friedlander had begun to use his Leica in a systematic way beginning in 1962 and found that the camera was perfectly suited for spontaneous or clandestine capture of images on the streets.  As he says in the introduction to Self Portrait,

'They began as straight portraits but soon I was finding myself at times in the landscape of my photography.  I might call myself an intruder.  At any rate, they came about slowly and not with plan but more as another discovery each time.  I would see myself as a character or an element that would shift presence as my work would change in direction.  At first, my presence in my photos was fascinating and disturbing.  But as time passed and I was more a part of the other ideas in my photos, I was able to add a giggle to those feelings.'