New York City
Lee Friedlander
American, born 1934
1966
Lee Friedlander’s 1966 gelatin silver print is a flash-lit, close-up portrait that turns a casual domestic moment into an arresting, almost confrontational image by foregrounding a man’s face while two others sink into shadow behind him.
The first thing you notice is the bright, intimate glare of the flash on the man’s features—slightly off-center and unnervingly close—while the surrounding room collapses into darkness where two half-seen figures and tiny wall decals hover like distant echoes.
This work exemplifies Friedlander’s snapshot aesthetic—tight framing, stark flash, and candid intimacy—that helped redefine postwar American documentary photography by treating ordinary, vernacular moments as psychologically and compositionally potent.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
4 3/4 × 7 5/16" (12.1 × 18.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
13.2006
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
