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One of the living legends of American photography on show in SF

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Skip to main contentYou have permission to edit this article.EditHomeEventsMusicDiningFilmStateArtOutdoorsComing UpArchivesMarketplaceOur Partnerse-EditionLee Friedlander’s “Nashville,” 1963.{span}Lee Friedlander{/span}{span}. {/span}{span}”{/span}{span}Ajo, Arizona,{/span}{span}” {/span}{span}1995{/span}{span}. C{/span}{span}ourtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York{/span}Lee Friedlander’s Montana, 1977.Lee Friedlander’s “Nashville,” 1963.{span}Lee Friedlander{/span}{span}. {/span}{span}”{/span}{span}Ajo, Arizona,{/span}{span}” {/span}{span}1995{/span}{span}. C{/span}{span}ourtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York{/span}Lee Friedlander’s Montana, 1977.What’s there left to say about Lee Friedlander? If a picture is worth a thousand words, he’s said it all. The photographer, born in 1934, is one of the living legends of American photography, influential for his seminal urban landscapes and candid portraits. Shooting since the age of 14, Friedlander refers to photography as a habit more than an art practice, a reflexive response to being in the world.At this point, it’s possible that he’s seen more through the camera lens than his own eyes — or that the two have become synonymous. The same could be said for another man who has spent much of his life framing the world for the camera, filmmaker Joel Coen.Coen has curated the latest Friedlander exhibition, “Lee Friedlander Framed by Joel Coen,” featuring 70 selections throughout the photographer’s career, split between concurrent presentations at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, in New York City, with some overlap between the two shows.Coen has also sequenced a slideshow of all 70 pictures, screening in both galleries. Coen’s take on Friedlander’s work is, as the exhibition title suggests, all about framing — and not the kind that goes around Friedlander’s photographs, but rather the ones that appear within them.In classic Coen-esque fashion, the spread of “frames” present in this selection of Friedlander’s pictures range from the literal to the metaphorical, the punny to the lyrical. Here, frames constitute everything from windows, doors, mirrors, and televisions to poles and posts, breaking up the visual field.In “Ajo, Arizona” (1995), a mirror — or maybe a photograph? — hangs on a chain-link fence, reflecting a landscape back at the camera. “Nashville” (1963) manages to be a triptych in a single picture, a mirror-backed door breaking up two sides of a hotel room, a television set on the left and a view into the bathroom on the right. In other instances, double exposures serve as forms of frames, photos couched within photos.The slideshow — which Coen calls a “flipbook” — presents a unique synthesis of the two artists’ media. The pictures cycle at varying speeds, some flashing on-screen for an instant, others lingering the equivalent of a long shot, the artificial click of a shutter sounding off every time the image changes, evoking an old-school slide machine or film crank. Individual film cells are, of course, also referred to as “frames.” Coen plays the part of an editor splicing the found footage of Friedlander’s cinematography, revealing a narrative of a man who has lived his life by looking at the world rather than being in it.In “Maria Friedlander, Las Vegas, Nevada” (1970, printed 1980s), Friedlander’s wife leans against a bedroom wall, her nude torso framed in a rectangle of light interrupted by the shadow of Friedlander, which falls over her body. It’s an intimate portrait framed by the distance photography imposes between the maker and his subject: close enough to touch, but separated by the device that makes that relationship possible. Maybe bearing witness is enough — but who watches the watchman?The one accurate self-portrait in the exhibition, “Tokyo, Japan” (1994, printed 2013), is a final, particularly Coen-esque play off the double meaning of the word “framed” — the picture something like a wistful mugshot. Here, Friedlander captures himself in a similar pose to Maria in the Las Vegas picture, his back against a wall, his head positioned inside a rectangle of light. Eyes closed, glasses dangling from his neck, caught looking. Disarmed, he finally lets us see the whole picture.For its 15th anniversary, the festival will have 96 restaurants slinging over 700 menu items over the course of …The San Francisco author's new book is an ode to beauty and wonderNo library card will be required to listen to the artists that make up the Bay Area's local music scene this fallFor its 15th anniversary, the festival will have 96 restaurants slinging over 700 menu items over the course of …The San Francisco author's new book is an ode to beauty and wonderNo library card will be required to listen to the artists that make up the Bay Area's local music scene this fall

Skip to main contentYou have permission to edit this article.EditHomeEventsMusicDiningFilmStateArtOutdoorsComing UpArchivesMarketplaceOur Partnerse-EditionLee Friedlander’s “Nashville,” 1963.{span}Lee Friedlander{/span}{span}. {/span}{span}”{/span}{span}Ajo, Arizona,{/span}{span}” {/span}{span}1995{/span}{span}. C{/span}{span}ourtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York{/span}Lee Friedlander’s Montana, 1977.Lee Friedlander’s “Nashville,” 1963.{span}Lee Friedlander{/span}{span}. {/span}{span}”{/span}{span}Ajo, Arizona,{/span}{span}” {/span}{span}1995{/span}{span}....

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One of the living legends of American photography on show in SF

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