Lee and Maria Friedlander Meet Joel Coen and Frances McDormand

As regular readers know (and might be tired of hearing), I refer to The New York Times as "The World's Best Photography Magazine"...although, of course, its photographic content tends to be interspersed with a whole lot of other stuff. And I recommend subscribing. If you don't subscribe, you can access up to 10 articles a month for free. Another way of getting everything is to subscribe to the print version of the Sunday paper, if it's available in your area, as that comes with all digital access included.

Anyway, a number of readers (thanks to all) have tipped me about this: "Filmmaker Joel Coen Puts His Spin on the Photos of Lee Friedlander: Working in his California home 3,000 miles away during Covid, the director struck a sympathetic chord with the venerated photographer. A book and two gallery shows resulted." Not to be missed.

Joel Coen at Cannes, 2001. Photo by Rita Molnár.

Lee Friedlander is, in Yr. Hmbl. Ed.'s humble opinion, one of the two greatest photographers of the second half of the twentieth century, and at age 88 he has published more than 50 books. Joel Coen (b. 1954) is one-half of the famous Coen Brothers film-making team (although recently they have been working separately), whose works include Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), No Country for Old Men (2007), True Grit (2010), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018). And The Man Who Wasn't There from 2001, which is my favorite...because it's in black-and-white (please don't kill me, please).

Lee Friedlander, self-portrait, 1994

The catalyst of their project together was the San Francisco gallerist and book publisher Jeffrey Fraenkel, who started his gallery, now on Geary Street, in 1979. His second show back then was Lee Friedlander. 

A couple of quotes from the article I liked. Lee says of Joel, "he says all kinds of nice things that I don’t recognize. Splitting, splintering. Evidently my pictures are that way, but I didn’t think, ‘I want to take a splintering picture.’ If you’ve done the same thing for 60 years, you don’t think of motive very much. I just walk and see something interesting [...] it's just a great game." Joel says, "I’m extremely sympathetic to Lee’s point of view in how he thinks about his own work. It comes up with any writer, photographer or filmmaker, because you’re always asked to analyze your own process or the obsessions of your own work. I’ve always been very much of the opinion that the obligation of the person who makes the work is to make the work, and the obligation of the people who view the work is to think about it."

Most of Jeffrey's books are terrific—some of them are faves. I need another Friedlander book like I need a hole in the head (only because I have no place to shelve books here, and it's a problem)—but I had to order this one from the gallery. Too cool to pass up. The cost is close to $100, after shipping and tax are added. But hey, once they're gone....

Check out the article. Worth a read, and some good links. Thanks to everyone who suggested it.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

Comments

[James Weekes]

Do not know how I missed this. He is my favorite photographer. Ever. Always wanted to get a print but they're hard to find. Wonderful article. Oh Brother Where Art Thou is my favorite of the many great Coen movies.

[Albert Smith]

Wow, this popped up in my newsfeeds a day or so ago, and for a minute, I thought of directly emailing it to you, just on the chance that it might be of some interest. I even saved the link, but figured, no.

Should have trusted my initial inclination.

Love the Coens, have every movie on Bluray and have several Friedlander books, so this article was right up my alley.

[Stan B.]

Much as I like his 35mm work, his square format Hassy SWC photos are a true joy to behold!

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Thanks for the heads-up on this article, Mike. I completely missed it!

While I can't claim true acquaintance with Jeffrey Fraenkel I have had the pleasure of meeting him and spending some group time with him several times during past years. I can't name anyone more genuinely enthusiastic for photography's past, and present, than Fraenkel. So I can well imagine how he ignited the fuse that led to such a combustion of creative energy. He's good at that...which is why he's been one of the world's top photo dealers for so long.

[Patrick Perez]

The Man Who Wasn't There was shot on color film and converted to mono in post production. I always thought that was a weird way to do it, but I'm not Roger Deakins, so what do I know?

I got RD's book after seeing it mentioned here.

Patrick
(my favorite Coens movie is Miller's Crossing. And although O Brother, Where Art Thou? is named after a plotline in Preston Sturgess' movie Sullivan's Travels, it doesn't really connect to Sullivan's materially. The Coens' movie Intolerable Cruelty is very much a Sturgess homage/pastiche).

[Steve Rosenblum]

thanks Mike! Just ordered the book.

[Mani Sitaraman]

It costs a hundred dollars to ship to Singapore, so, alas, it is not for me. Am I imagining it, or have USPS rates for non-standard and larger items and international package mail gone up greatly in the last decade?

[You're not imagining it. It was giving us fits with the print sales.... --Mike]

[Niels]

I wish you didn't do this. This one hadn't reached my radar.

I already have more Friedlander books than I feel I should, but I enjoy his work too much.
This is what my Friedlander stack looked like at World Photobook Day (Oct. 14) last year. Two additional books were added since then:

"America By Car" is the most expensive photobook I own.

The 2010 Whitney show reached Copenhagen in 2012.
The show blew my mind, but the book was long out of print.
I was hoping for a reprint, but the price of the out of print version just kept climbing - to the point were it was approaching the price of the oversized signed special edition.

So I finally caved in and forked over $395 for the special edition. It took me 8 years to make that purchase decision and I am happy to say that I don't regret it.

[scott kirkpatrick]

The Coen coterie and the Friedlander family fit well together in their conscientiously unconscious deep awareness of things around them. The Friedlander 50's summary book shares Lee's wife's and grandson's views of all of the people involved in a life of seeing. It's great to get a glimpse into that world.

[scott kirkpatrick]

And Mike, who is the OTHER great photographer of the second half of the 20th Century?

[Do you have to ask?

Also, I said greatEST. There are many who are great. --Mike]

[Sean]

I often hear the film critic, Mark Kermode, advise that when listening to an artist talking about their work, you should "Trust the tale, not the teller". The part of an artist's mind involved in interviews might be acting like a press secretary for the second self. The one that does the work and doesn’t want to be disturbed

[David Johnson]

Don't think that bxw exists because only color is manufactured. So the color is drained so that bxw appears.....