Great Friedlander show at MoMA

NEW YORK -- It was an unusual exhibition to curate in a number of ways.

For a retrospective of the work of photographer Lee Friedlander, the Museum of Modern Art was able to dig deep into its own collection for nearly 90 percent of the work -- no drawn-out negotiations to borrow material from institutions around the world.

And then, when curator Peter Galassi wanted to discuss aspects of the show, he could go straight to the source -- Friedlander himself.

Not that he got that much help there, Galassi said. While interested in the section detailing his current work, Friedlander left the sections on previous years up to Galassi.

"I kept dragging him and saying, 'Look, I want you to know what I'm doing here,' and he said, 'No, surprise me,' " Galassi recalled.

"Friedlander," an exhibition of more than 480 photographs and 25 books covering decades of work, runs through Aug. 29 at MoMA before traveling to Europe until 2007. It will then return for a tour of the United States.

It's the fifth time that MoMA has put together a show focused solely on Friedlander and is by far the most comprehensive, ranging from the 1960s, when he started capturing what he called the "American social landscape," to his current work, including his landscape photographs of the American West. The museum used its own collection of Friedlander's work, which it started buying in 1964, and borrowed the rest from the photographer.

The result is a show where no photo stands alone; all are placed in groups, arranged chronologically but also thematically and stylistically. This makes it easy for the viewer to appreciate what Friedlander was able to do with a camera -- capturing everything from landscapes to portraits of friends to photographic commentaries on American life -- and how much he enjoyed doing it, Galassi said.

There are photos that show Friedlander's sense of humor. In a series about American monuments, one picture pokes fun at tourists taking shots of Mount Rushmore; in another, snowfall makes a statue of a young man with a grenade look like he's throwing a snowball instead. Yet, there's also Friedlander's appreciation for the world: A photo in the same collection captures a statue of a woman holding a sword, respectful of the sacrifices Americans have made in wartime.

The exhibition is also a window into how America has developed over the years. Landscape photographs from different decades show how much the country has changed, and photos of workers display how the American work environment has changed.

The differences are especially clear in Friedlander's later work, when he started using a camera that gave him larger images with more detail. It inspired Friedlander to revisit themes from his earlier work, to see what impact improved technology would have, Galassi said.

But a commonality in Friedlander's work is his engagement with his subjects, his enjoyment of what he was doing, Galassi said.

"The pictures are absolutely about pleasure, the pleasure of looking, the pleasure of being in the world," Galassi said. "The first thing I want is for people to enjoy looking at them, and then if they do, they can start following all the other threads that lead out."

Copyright C 2005 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.