Mount Rushmore. South Dakota
Lee Friedlander
American, born 1934
1969
A gelatin silver print in which Lee Friedlander captures Mount Rushmore as a layered reflection in glass, collapsing the carved presidents and the park’s visitors into a single, ironic American tableau.
The image hits you with overlapping realities—the presidents’ heads looming faintly above while people up close raise cameras and binoculars, their reflections bisected by window mullions that fracture and double the scene.
A key example of Friedlander’s camera-conscious style, this work uses reflection and framing to probe how photography, spectatorship, and monuments shape public memory and everyday American identity.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
15 1/8 × 22 3/8" (38.4 × 56.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
1154.2000
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
