Lee Friedlander

     Lee Friedlander is most known for his asymmetrical black and white photography of the American "social landscape". Meaning he photographed everyday people, places, and things, he was trying to capture the look of modern life. One of the techniques that I see him use in quite a lot of his photographs is reflection, this in my opinion brings a lot of curiosity into the picture and truly captures the look of modern life due to the fact that a lot of people now a days take selfies whether it be in mirrors or car and building windows.

The picture below instantly caught my eye, I can not figure out what you are supposed to feel when looking at it. The mask he is wearing in the photograph makes me think of a scene in a horror movie and also the fact that the picture is taken in a hotel room mirror gives it kind of an eerie feeling. To me this picture did not fit the look of modern life because it is not everyday that you wear a mask or book a hotel. But you could also think about it as Hotels being a new and growing industry in the modern world.

Lee also liked to take pictures of signs, the picture below brings out similar feelings and curiosities as the one before. I love the message that I get from this photograph, he truly captures the end of something in this photograph. Not only the end of the road but also the dinosaur behind the sign shows possibly the end of one of the worlds first attractions. It is crazy to think that something so big as dinosaurs could end so easily and quickly.

His photographs capture the moments that we walk past and do not acknowledge, like window shopping. Everybody does it but we do not stop and think about why we are doing it. For example in his photograph below he is looking at a chair, maybe thinking of buying it or just simply thinking that it is a nice chair, very aesthetically pleasing.


Photographers like Lee truly show the capability of photography. Everything and anything can be your used as your inspiration. You can relay any message that you want with a photograph, whether it be everyday life or something super unique that you captured coincidentally.

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