Friedlander

Currently, Father Duffy's ornate grave and statue cower under the neon command of a Coke advertisement. The once-marvelous monument to a man has been reduced to an obstruction blocking sightlines to an array of billboards and soaring buildings. That's the scene in one of photographer Lee Friedlander's best-known black-and-white photos. Through Friedlander's careful eyes, the cityscape, be it New York or Las Vegas, is a stark and consuming place. He presents urban landscapes as carnivorous areas, where things tend to be macabre. But in his over 50-year career, Friedlander shot more than just cities. He captured graceful nudes, made color images of some of the world's most famous music icons including John Coltrane and Miles Davis, and altered his subject matter altogether in the '90s to capture the majesty of nature on a large scale. Even lately, in his 70s and mostly homebound, he continues to photograph the small scrap of world around him through images of televisions and books. This career retrospective shows Friedlander's unique vision of environments, both grand and intimate, that have occupied his life and imagination.
June 29-Sept. 14, 2008