WKSU News: Concurrent exhibitions in Cleveland and Akron showcase photographer Lee Friedlander's five-decade career as well as Northeast Ohio's industrial history

Friday, May 1, 2009 Concurrent exhibitions in Cleveland and Akron showcase photographer Lee Friedlander's five-decade career as well as Northeast Ohio's industrial history A regional collaboration of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Akron Art Museum includes Friedlander's "Factory Valley" series. by WKSU's VIVIAN GOODMAN	Reporter Vivian Goodman

Here's Cleveland Museum of Art curator Tom Hinson's take... on Lee Friedlander, "One of the finest and most prolific photographers in the history of the medium." The largest ever display of Friedlander's work concludes a world tour this month in Cleveland. WKSU's Vivian Goodman reports the Cleveland Museum of Art's retrospective runs concurrently with a smaller show in Akron with a regional focus.

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The Hoover Company, North Canton, 1979-80 Gelatin silver print 11 x 14 in. Collection of the Akron Art Museum

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From the Cleveland Museum of Art Friedlander retrospective. Friedlander was born in Washington State but waited until late in his career, when he switched from a 35 millimeter Leica to a wide-angle Hasselblad, to turn his attention to the scenes of his youth out west.

(Click image for larger view.)

One of Friedlander's urban landscapes from the CMA show

Friedlander loves storefronts, windows, reflections and weird justapositions.

Cars, shop windows, billboard ads, and television sets are among the banalities of urban life that come into focus in Friedlander's exploration of what he calls the "American social landscape."

Friedlander crops his nudes in a way that evokes abstract modern art.

From "Factory Valleys" Cleveland, 1979-80, gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Collection of the Akron Art Museum

Pittsburg, 1979-80
Gelatin silver print
11 x 14 in
Collection of the Akron Art Museum