LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  PHOTOGRAPHS PART I  / 

35

LEE FRIEDLANDER (American, b. 1934) HILLCREST, NEW YORK signed copyright stamp on verso titled a...

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LEE FRIEDLANDER (American, b. 1934) HILLCREST, NEW YORK signed copyright stamp on verso titled a...
LEE FRIEDLANDER (American, b. 1934) HILLCREST, NEW YORK signed copyright stamp on verso titled and dated "Hillcrest, N.Y. 1970" on verso vintage gelatin silver print 6 5/8 x 10 in. (16.2 x 25.4 cm) 1970 PROVENANCE From the artist to Fraenkel Gallery, SAN FRANCISCO Private Collection LITERATURE DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY, New York, 1972, p. 179 (illustrated) Loïc Malle, LEE FRIEDLANDER, Paris, 1987, pl. 9 (illustrated) Rod Slemmons, LEE FRIEDLANDER: LIKE A ONE-EYED CAT, New York, 1989, pl. 33 (illustrated) Michel Frizot, ed., A NEW HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY, Cologne, 1998, p. 657 (illustrated) Instrumental to the development of photography as an art form in the 1960s and 1970s, Lee Friedlander established a unique style that was deceptively casual. When asked about this photo for example, Friedlander said, "It's a nothing, a couple of gas stations, a shopping plaza, not many people, lots of cars. I looked out and this is what I saw" (DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY, p. 179). Friedlander's style flirts with shadows and reflections. Abrupt linear breaks lend a compositional sophistication to his scenes of everyday life. In the present lot, a Mobil gas sign is unreadable due to the obstruction of a side view mirror. Hillcrest, New York was described in DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY as "a crazy-quilt pattern of cars, signs and suburban clutter." Friedlander challenges us to find our way around his images. Influenced by Walker Evans and Robert Frank, Friedlander also photographed urban and rural settings, yet Friedlander distinguished himself by allowing an elusive feeling to resound in his work. In essence, this becomes another way to engage with his viewers. Describing his style, the artist explained, "I try not to think about it, to work intuitively. When I choose the negatives to print, I do it partially by whim: I let my eye do the thinking. There is something elusive out there and what you are doing is trying to get it on film" (Rod Slemmons, p. 115). "The reflective surfaces of the window and the mirror beyond the window are hard to reconcile with the surface of the photograph. The photographer and a bystander-who stands for us, perhaps-are reflected back and forth by the surfaces and are hard to place within the illusory space of the photograph. The photograph demonstrates that seeing is not an act that can be simply described, even with a camera" (Rod Slemmons, p. 117).
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