“Whether or not you’ve celebrated Christmas at any point over the past seventy years—roughly the period covered by these photographs—you have no doubt encountered some of the things Lee Friedlander shows us here.” So begins the afterward to Lee Friedlander: Christmas, a new book of holiday-related pictures published by the Eakins Press Foundation. The volume assembles various kinds of images by the storied photographer who started pointing his lens at American life in 1948 and now finds himself at the age of 91.
On Friedlander’s vision of Christmas, the afterward, by fellow photographer Peter Kayafas, continues: “In lieu of holding forth on what that means—which would do a disservice to the pictures—it’s worth considering a few things about how Christmas in America looks in the eyes of the great artist of the social landscape, because, after all, what defines a social landscape better than the things we all have in common—by circumstance, religion, inheritance, or commerce? A few words about Friedlander’s take on all this come to mind: plastic, disposable, cheap, timely, earnest, ceremonial, elaborate, ubiquitous, sad, beautiful, true.”
Below see some highlights from Lee Friedlander: Christmas.
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Mississippi, 1986
Image Credit: ©Lee Friedlander/Fraenkel Gallery, Courtesy Eakins Press Foundation
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New Orleans, Louisiana, 1971
Image Credit: ©Lee Friedlander/Fraenkel Gallery, Courtesy Eakins Press Foundation
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Nashville, Tennessee, 1966
Image Credit: ©Lee Friedlander/Fraenkel Gallery, Courtesy Eakins Press Foundation
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Northeastern United States, 1965
Image Credit: ©Lee Friedlander/Fraenkel Gallery, Courtesy Eakins Press Foundation
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New York City, 1961
Image Credit: ©Lee Friedlander/Fraenkel Gallery, Courtesy Eakins Press Foundation
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New York State, 1963
Image Credit: ©Lee Friedlander/Fraenkel Gallery, Courtesy Eakins Press Foundation
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Utah, 1988
Image Credit: ©Lee Friedlander/Fraenkel Gallery, Courtesy Eakins Press Foundation
