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Jill Freedman

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American photographer (1939–2019) For the lawyer, see Jill M. Friedman.

Jill Freedman
Born(1939-10-19)October 19, 1939
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.
DiedOctober 9, 2019(2019-10-09) (aged 79)
New York City, New York U.S.
OccupationDocumentary photographer
Years active1966–2017
Websitewww.jillfreedman.com

Jill Freedman (October 19, 1939 – October 9, 2019) was an American documentary photographer and street photographer. She was based in New York City.

Early life and education

Freedman was born in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh to a traveling salesman and a nurse. As an adult Freedman photographed extensively in Ireland, quipping "I'm Jewish, but I adopted Ireland as my own old country". In 1961, Freedman graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a major in sociology. In 1964 Freedman came to New York City and had several temporary jobs including advertising copywriter. She only discovered photography while experimenting with a friend's camera.

Career

After college, Freedman went to Israel, where she worked on a Kibbutz. She ran out of money and sang to make a living; she continued singing in Paris and on a television variety show in London.

Freedman arrived in New York City in 1964, and worked in advertising and as a copywriter. As a photographer, she was self-taught, influenced by André Kertész, idolizing W. Eugene Smith, but primarily helped by her poodle Fang:

When I was out walking in the street with Fang I saw everything, felt everything. He had a great instinct. He taught me how to look, because he never missed a thing.

Andy Grundberg would also note the influences on her style of Smith, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Don McCullin, Leonard Freed, and Weegee; but would add that: "To appreciate photographs one needs to consider their substance, not their style. . . . Human relationships – especially the bonds of brotherhood – fascinate her."

On hearing of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Freedman quit her job and went to Washington, DC. She lived in Resurrection City, a shantytown put up by the Poor People's Campaign on Washington Mall in 1968, and photographed there. Photographs from the series were published at the time in Life, and collected in Freedman's first book, Old News: Resurrection City, in 1970. A. D. Coleman wrote of the book:

It is a very personal yet highly objective statement, filled with passion, warmth, sorrow and humor. Freedman's pictures are deft and strong; her text witty, sardonic and honest, with quirky insights and touching moments of self-revelation. A brave and moving book.

Freedman then lived in a Volkswagen kombi, following the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus. For two months, she photographed "two shows a day and one show each Sunday. Seven weeks of one night stands", and moving across New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Ohio. She wanted to photograph the performers as people. ("If I wanted to do freaks, I'd do guys wearing ties in 100-degree weather – to me that's freaks.") Coleman wrote:

both the photographer's own responses to people and the personalities of her subjects. The moments she selects are significant emotionally as well as graphically. Her images exclude the extraneous in an inconspicuous way, and her sense of timing and gesture . . . is uncanny.

The work was published as a book, Circus Days, in 1975.

Freedman photographed the then sleazy area of 42nd Street and the arts scene in Studio 54 and SoHo.

In 1975, Freedman started to photograph firefighters around Harlem and the Bronx. This took her two years; she lived with the firefighters, sleeping in the chief's car and on the floor. This resulted in a book, Firehouse, published in 1977 – according to one review, a book "flawed . . . by poor reproduction and inept layout".

Some of the firefighters had previously been policemen, and they suggested that Freedman might photograph police work. Freedman had disliked the police but reasoned that there must be good policemen among them. For her series Street Cops (1978–1981), she accompanied the police to an area of New York City including Alphabet City and Times Square, spending time with those who seemed good cops. The work resulted in the book Street Cops. A contemporary reviewer for Popular Photography started by observing that "the passionate photojournalistic essay of yesterday" was "an endangered species", before saying that it lived on in photobooks such as this one. The reviewer described Street Cops as " the heroism, compassion, and humor of New York police professionals", and saying that the book "is traditional and satisfying in that it accomplishes a blend rarely successful – or even attempted – these days: an organic fusion of words and photographs".

On photographing in New York at the time:

Hiding behind a camera, found her subjects where others were not looking – "beggars, panhandlers, people sleeping on the street," the police and the firefighters, the people washed ashore by forces bigger than themselves. "It's the theater of the streets," she said. "The weirder, the better."

During the seventies, Freedman was briefly associated with Magnum Photos, but did not become a member. She wanted to tell stories via photography, but also wanted to avoid the schmoozing required to get commissions; and she therefore set her own tasks. She had difficulty making a living, but sold prints from a stand set up outside the Whitney Museum building. In 1983, New York Times critic Andy Grunberg recognized her black and white street photography in New York, grouping Freedman with Lee Friedlander, Fred R. Conrad, Bruce Davidson, Roy DeCarava, Bill Cunningham, Sara Krulwich and Rudy Burckhardt.

In 1988, Freedman discovered that she was ill. The medical expenses meant that she had to leave her apartment above the Sullivan Street Playhouse; in 1991, she moved to Miami Beach; she was dissatisfied there but was able to read a lot. She sometimes worked for the Miami Herald. She also managed to publish a photobook of dogs that was praised for " the clichéd images" of dog photography. She also published the second of two photobooks of Ireland, one that Publishers Weekly said "lovingly captures the enduring aspects of Irish tradition".

Around 2003, Freedman moved back to New York. She was shocked and saddened by its sanitization during her absence: "When I saw that they had turned 42nd Street into Disneyland, . . . I just stood there and wept." She moved to a place near Morningside Park in 2007, and was still living there in 2015.

During the earlier part of her career, Freedman was captivated by the photographic printing process. She shot Kodak Tri-X and liked to use a 35 mm lens and available light, and to print on Agfa Portriga Rapid paper. As of late 2016, she neither had a darkroom nor missed having one: she emphasized that the camera, whether film or digital, was merely a tool. When asked on another occasion, she approvingly cited Elliott Erwitt on not being boring and attempting to do excellent work; technical questions and even posterity should not be a concern.

Freedman was one of 13 photographers shown photographing New York in Everybody Street, a 2013 film by Cheryl Dunn. Together with Richard Kalvar, Alex Webb, Rebecca Norris Webb, Maggie Steber and Matt Stuart, she was a featured guest in the Miami Street Photography Festival 2016 at HistoryMiami Museum during Art Basel week.

Grundberg wrote in 1982 that "Indignation over injustice is the major key in work, admiration for life's survivors the minor key." Maggie Steber has said of Freedman:

I think she's been thoroughly under-recognized. . . . To me, Jill is one of the great American photographers. Always has been and always will be.

In 2016, Freedman's work and career, especially her images of New York City, was the subject of renewed interest, appearing in multiple Vice articles, including their 2016 photography issue and at Art Basel Miami.

Personal life

In her later life, Freedman lived in Harlem.

On October 9, 2019, Freedman died from complications of cancer at a care facility in Manhattan.

Awards

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • Jill Freedman: Pictures from New York, The Photographers' Gallery, London, March 1974.
  • The Circus and Other Scenes, The Photographers' Gallery, London, June 1974.
  • Jill Freedman, The Photographers' Gallery, London, June 1976.
  • PhotoGraph Gallery, New York, January 1982.
  • University Center Gallery, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, May 1982.
  • Street Cops: Jill Freedman, The Photographers' Gallery, London, September–October 1982.
  • Jill Freedman Photographs, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, December 1984 – January 1985.
  • Street Cops, Nikon Salon, Ginza, Tokyo, 1985.
  • Jill Freedman: 60's to the present, Witkin Gallery, New York City, December 1996 – January 1997.
  • Laughter and Love: A Romp through Ireland, M. J. Ellenbogen Photography, White Plains, NY, March 2006.
  • Here and There, A.M. Richard Fine Art, Brooklyn, New York, April–May 2007. Paired with an exhibition, Photographs of 42nd Street, by Andrew Garn.
  • Resurrection City 1968, Higher Pictures, New York City, April–May 2008.
  • Street Cops 1978–1981, Higher Pictures, New York City, September–October 2011.
  • Street Cops, The President's Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, September–October 2012
  • Circus Days 1971, Higher Pictures, New York City, January–March 2013.
  • Long Stories Short, Steven Kasher Gallery, New York City, September–October 2015. For the most part, previously unpublished examples of Freedman's earlier work.
  • Resurrection City, 1968, Steven Kasher Gallery, New York, 2017
  • Street Cops 1978–1981, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York, September–October 2021.
  • Firehouse: The Photography of Jill Freedman, New York City Fire Museum, 2022 – April 2023.

Group exhibitions

  • Circus: The real people, Neikrug Galleries, New York City, May 1972. With Charles Reynolds.
  • Soho Photo, New York City, 1972. With Harvey Stein and Mike Levins.
  • Rated X, Neikrug Galleries, New York City, June 1972.
  • Third Eye Gallery, New York City, March 1976. Black and white photographs of New York; with Helen Buttfield, André Kertész, Ruth Orkin, and others.
  • Street Kids, New York Historical Society, New York City, 1978. With Lewis W. Hine, Jacob Riis, Ben Shahn, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Bruce Davidson and Ken Heyman
  • Manhattan Portraits, Federal Hall National Memorial, New York City, September 1984. With Laurence Fink, George Malave, Toby Old, Sy Rubin, Ed Fausty and Brian Rose.
  • The Animal in Photography, 1843–1985, The Photographers' Gallery, London, June–September 1986.
  • Mothers and Daughters, Burden Gallery, May 1987. With Bruce Davidson, Joel Meyerowitz, Niki Berg, Danny Lyon, Kathleen Kenyon and Rosalind Solomon.
  • 2 Photographers – 5 Decades, PhotoGraphic Gallery, New York City, June–August 2006. With Arthur Lavine.
  • Ireland, PhotoGraphic Gallery, New York City, January–February 2007. With Christy McNamara.
  • Circus days, within Bêtes et hommes = Beasts and Men, Grande halle de la Villette, Paris, September 2007 – January 2008.
  • Gertrude's/LOT, Pittsburgh Biennial, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, December 2011 – January 2012.
  • Seriously, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York City, November 2016 – January 2017.

Collections

Freedman's work is held in the following permanent collections:

Publications

Notes

  1. A temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 38 degrees Celsius.
  2. The Sullivan Street Playhouse occupied 181 Sullivan Street from 1958 to 2002. Durniak, Drew (January 13, 2012). "Sullivan Street Playhouse: Gone but not forgotten". Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
  3. "Five years ago", says a newspaper article published on April 27, 2008; therefore presumably in 2002 or 2003.
  4. For the award-winning work, see Jill Freedman's group of series: "Survivors", "The Reproachful Voices of the Dead", "Judenrein", "Traces of the Past" at the Alicia Patterson Foundation.
  5. The catalog does not seem to distinguish among the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the Ringling Art Library, the Circus Museum, and perhaps other related institutions.
  6. Description at Printed Matter of the "gold edition" of Only Human.
  7. Description at Printed Matter of the second printing of Only Human.
  8. Description at Damiani of the second edition of Resurrection City.

References

  1. ^ Leland, John (October 9, 2019). "Jill Freedman, photographer who lingered in the margins, dies at 79". The New York Times. ProQuest 2302935851.
  2. ^ Koppel, Niko (April 27, 2008). "Through Weegee's lens". The New York Times. ProQuest 433819223.
  3. ^ Cuénin, Jonas (September 29, 2015). "Portrait of Jill Freedman: Street jazz". L'Œil de la Photographie. Archived from the original on March 7, 2017. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  4. Cavanagh, Maureen (October 16, 2019). "Close-up: Remembering Jill Freedman". American Photography's Pro-photo Daily. Archived from the original on November 23, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  5. Bernstein, Roslyn (December 6, 2017). "The incendiary photography of Jill Freedman". Guernica. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  6. ^ Emblen, Frank (May 2, 1982). "New Jersey Guide; Photo show at Drew". The New York Times. ProQuest 424360368.
  7. ^ Johnston, Laurie (September 4, 1977). "Photography beckoned, and now it's the light of her life". The New York Times. ProQuest 123399870.
  8. ^ Bryant, Austin (May 16, 2016). "'I love to see men cry': Interview with Jill Freedman, street photographer of the '70s and '80s". Jezebel. Archived from the original on January 7, 2022. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  9. ^ Estrin, James (January 13, 2014). "Cops, clowns and cameras". The New York Times.
  10. ^ Grundberg, Andy (January 17, 1982). "Jill Freedman: A photojournalist of passion and empathy". The New York Times. ProQuest 121966704.
  11. Qureshi, Bilal (June 21, 2008). "Capturing the Poor People's Campaign". National Public Radio. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  12. Coleman, A. D. (January 17, 1971). "Photography: Children, poverty and black women". The New York Times. ProQuest 119244588.
  13. ^ Bourus, Kim (January 31, 2013). "Jill Freedman; Exhibition: Circus Days 1971". Higher Pictures. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  14. ^ Coleman, A. D. (May 7, 1972). "Who will be the replacements?". The New York Times. ProQuest 119591067.
  15. ^ Baker, R.C. (April 24, 2007). "Where the mechanical things are". Village Voice. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  16. ^ Goldsmith, Arthur (March 1982). "Jill Freedman: Street Cops". Popular Photography. pp. 98, 121 – via Google Books.
  17. ^ Goh, Melisa (September 1, 2015). "Stories of a fearless street photographer". CNN. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  18. Bourus, Kim (September 15, 2011). "Jill Freedman; Exhibition: Street Cops 1978–1981". Higher Pictures. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  19. ^ Leland, John (September 17, 2015). "'The weirder, the better'". The New York Times. ProQuest 2074289128.
  20. ^ Cuénin, Jonas (September 29, 2015). "New York: Long Stories Short by Jill Freedman at the Steven Kasher Gallery". L'Œil de la Photographie. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017.
  21. Grundberg, Andy (December 9, 1983). "New York in black and white". The New York Times. ProQuest 122151010.
  22. "MSPF 2016 featured artist: Jill Freedman". Miami Street Photography Festival. 2016. Archived from the original on October 10, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  23. Johnson, Adrienne M. (July 3, 1994). "Hair of the dog". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest 282338155.
  24. "Nonfiction book review: Ireland Ever: The photographs of Jill Freedman". Publishers Weekly. October 1, 2004. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  25. ^ Maurer, Daniel (December 17, 2013). "Read Jill Freedman's epic rant about photography and the 'mechanized mindlessness' of today's NYC". Bedford + Bowery. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  26. Neubart, Jack (October 18, 2016). "Photographer profiles: What's black and white and read all over? The documentary photography of Jill Freedman". Shutterbug. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
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  28. Nelson, Karin (November 12, 2013). "Everybody Street". W Magazine. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
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  30. "Miami Street Photography Festival 2016". HistoryMiami Museum. December 2016. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  31. Cuénin, Jonas (May 21, 2015). "Jill Freedman: For life". L'Œil de la Photographie.(subscription required)
  32. "An intimate look at the nightly routine of Miami strippers". Vice. July 24, 2016. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  33. Freedman, Jill (August 22, 2016). "Men through the lens of a legendary female street photographer". Vice. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  34. Freedman, Jill (November 30, 2016). "Stunning photos of Miami as it used to be". Vice. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  35. National Endowment for the Arts; National Council on the Arts (1974). Annual Report: Fiscal Year 1973 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 101.
  36. Westbrook, Adele, ed. (2001). A Creative Legacy: A History of the National Endowment of the Arts Visual Artists' Fellowship Program, 1966–1995. New York: Harry N. Abrams. p. 218. ISBN 0-8109-4170-8 – via Internet Archive.
  37. Coleman, A. D. (June 2, 1974). "Quality and quantity are improving". The New York Times. ProQuest 120158001.
  38. "Interview with Benedict J. Fernandez". The Eye of Photography. May 7, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2023.
  39. "Jill Freedman. Fellowship title: The Holocaust, 50 Years Later". Alicia Patterson Foundation. Archived from the original on November 18, 2010. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  40. "Honorary Fellowships (HonFRPS)". Royal Photographic Society. 2001. Archived from the original on January 27, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  41. ^ "Exhibition history, 1971 – present" (PDF). The Photographers' Gallery. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 14, 2016. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  42. ^ "Exhibitions at The Photographers' Gallery 1971–Present". The Photographers' Gallery. February 13, 2013. Archived from the original (doc) on June 3, 2016. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  43. "Jill Freedman photographs". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Archived from the original on June 28, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  44. Ina Nobuo Shō 20-nen: Nikon Saron ni miru gendai shashin no keifu 伊奈信男賞20年 ニコンサロンにみる現代写真の系譜 [Twenty years of the Ina Nobuo Award: Lineage of contemporary photography seen at the Nikon Salon]. Nikon Salon Books 23. Tokyo: Nikkor Club. 1996. p. 153. This book (which is in Japanese only) also has an alternative title in Roman letters: Ina Nobuo Award '76–'95. It doesn't specify the period within 1985, but suggests that it was late in the year.
  45. Smith, Roberta (December 13, 1996). "The world through women's lenses". The New York Times. ProQuest 430713549. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  46. "Calendar". The New York Times. February 26, 2006. ProQuest 433272611. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  47. "Jill Freedman: Here and there". A.M. Richard Fine Art. March 4, 2007. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  48. "Andrew Garn: Photographs of 42nd Street". A.M. Richard Fine Art. March 4, 2007. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  49. "Jill Freedman: Resurrection City, 1968". Higher Pictures. 2008. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  50. Koppel, Niko (May 8, 2008). "A photographer and her subject, reunited decades later". The New York Times. ProQuest 2222020104. Retrieved March 5, 2017. (The author is named at the New York Times website, although not at ProQuest.)
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  62. Thornton, Gene (June 11, 1972). "They would be rated 'X' if they were movies". The New York Times. ProQuest 119560388. Retrieved March 6, 2017. "The few successful pictures in this exhibition show nudity and sex as somehow existing here in the world with the rest of us. Jill Freedman treats it as a comic spectacle."
  63. Barry, Ann, ed. (March 7, 1976). "Arts and leisure guide". The New York Times. ProQuest 122852279. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  64. Wells, Patricia (February 17, 1978). "New photo shows full of surprises". The New York Times. ProQuest 123820095. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  65. Shepard, Richard F. (September 27, 1984). "Going out guide". The New York Times. ProQuest 425175943. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  66. Brown, Patricia Leigh (May 4, 1987). "Images: Mothers and daughters". The New York Times. ProQuest 110775284. Retrieved March 6, 2017.
  67. Snyder, Steven (June 30, 2006). "One New York, through two very different lenses". Downtown Express. Archived from the original on March 7, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  68. Meyers, William (June 22, 2006). "Hitting the New York note". The New York Sun.(subscription required) "Again and again hits the New York note, that combination of paradox and pathos, of the tawdry and the supernally beautiful, that fills New Yorkers with pride and despair, and that all of us recognize as our own."
  69. "Ireland". Photography Now. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  70. "Bêtes et Hommes" (PDF). Bêtes et hommes. Parc de La Villette. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 27, 2022. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  71. Thomas, Mary (December 21, 2011). "22 women artists deliver provocative show at The Warhol". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  72. Edlin, Andrew (October 31, 2016). "Seriously". Andrew Edlin Gallery. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  73. "Artist: Jill Freedman: (1939) American". International Center of Photography. April 4, 2018. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  74. "Search". The Ringling. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  75. "BnF Catalogue général". Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  76. The Moderna Museet's holdings are as found here on March 3, 2017.
  77. "Photograph Collection: Center for Creative Photography: F" (PDF). Center for Creative Photography. March 26, 2005. p. 30. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 3, 2013. Retrieved May 20, 2023. (This says "See also: GROUP PORTFOLIOS: Ten Photographers, 1978".)
  78. Rosen, Miss (May 23, 2023). "The photographer who staked out inside the NYPD during the wild 1970s". i-D. Retrieved September 30, 2021.
  79. "Ireland Ever: The Photographs of Jill Freedman". review. Publishers Weekly.
  80. "Jill Freedman: Resurrection City, 1968". review. Publishers Weekly.
  81. Risch, Conor (March 13, 2018). "Jill Freedman on the Poor People's Campaign". Photo District News. Retrieved May 26, 2023.

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