Lee Friedlander is a renowned American photographer known for exploring the "social landscape." Born to a Finnish mother and a German-Jewish émigré father, Friedlander's early life was marked by his mother's death when he was just seven. By age 14, he was already earning pocket money as a photographer, and by 18, he enrolled at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In 1956, Friedlander moved to New York City, where he photographed jazz musicians for album covers. His early influences included Eugène Atget, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans, with Friedlander often regarded as one of Atget's heirs. In 1960, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to focus on his artistic work, later receiving additional grants in 1962 and 1977. Friedlander's photographic style, predominantly using a handheld Leica 35mm camera and black-and-white film, captured urban life, storefronts, reflections, and signs, often conveying the essence of modern life. His first solo exhibition was held in 1963 at the George Eastman House, and he gained wider recognition in 1967 as part of the Museum of Modern Art's "New Documents" exhibition alongside Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus.
Friedlander received numerous accolades throughout his career, including the MacArthur Fellowship in 1990 and the Hasselblad Foundation Award in 2005. His work has been featured in major retrospectives, including at the Museum of Modern Art (2005) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008). Notably, he continued to work in his later years, capturing the world around him through the lens of his medium-format cameras.
