The overlap

FRIEDLANDER, Lee, “Newark, New Jersey, 1962”,

Photographs, New York, Haywire, 1978

FRIEDLANDER, Lee, “Hillcrest, New York, 1970”,

Like a One-Eyed Cat, Photographs by Lee Friedlander 1956-1987,

New York, Abrams, 1989.

FRIEDLANDER, Lee, “Texas, 1965”,

Like a One-Eyed Cat, Photographs by Lee Friedlander 1956-1987,

New York, Abrams, 1989.

FRIEDLANDER, Lee, “New York City, 1963”,

Photographs, New York, Haywire, 1978

Lee Friedlander’s unique vision underscores the two-dimensionality of the picture plane and the potential for photographs to contain varying levels of reflection, opacity, and transparency. Friedlander’s images of shop windows evoke a certain ambiguity, an oscillation between reflected and actual reality, that invite inspection of the space and the meaning of the image. Similar responses are encouraged by Friedlander’s street photographs, in which shadows of figures (usually Friedlander himself) and other subjects overlap in the photographic image. The projected outline of Friedlander’s body as within the picture frame implies the notion that the photographer can be both behind the camera and in front of it. Interpreted further, Friedlander’s shadow can be taken to represent the imposition of the photographer upon his world and his subject.

Reference: Museum of Contemporary Photography , Chicago