Human Clay is a series of six books by American photographer Lee Friedlander. These images are from Human Clay: Children and Portraits. Through them and more Friedlander aims to record “the American social landscape”.
Dionigi and Idelma Obertello, Bargone, Italy, 1965
“Somebody else could walk two feet away to get those poles and trees and other stuff out of the way, I almost walk two feet to get into it, because it is a part of the game that I play. It isn’t even conscious; I probably just drift into it… its like a found pleasure. You’ve found something that you like and you play with it for the rest of your life” – Lee Friedlander
Earl Rose, Chicago, 1970
“I like making books… I realise that the nature of photography is such that I can’t see everything on first look, because photography has this ability to deal so well with information. There’s so much information in a picture that often I don’t see until the fifth reading or 30 years later.
“I can pick up Walker’s book American Photographs today and see something I never saw before – and I’ve owned that book for over 30 years. So I think that books are a great medium for photography. They seem to be the best. I can go back and re-read things – ‘Oh shit, I didn’t see that before’” – Lee Friedlander
John Szarkowski, New City, New York, 1973
Cherie Hiser, Aspen, Colorado, 1972
RB Kitaj and Frank Auerbach, London, 1994
Lee Friedlander, Philip Roth (center), New York City, 1973. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco. From Parties, part of the Yale University Press series of Friedlander’s portraiture, The Human Clay.
Carla Penz and her husband Phil DeVries, New York City, 2003
Paul Tate, Lafayette, Louisiana, 1968
Maria Morris, Bailey Island, Maine, 1976
Lynda Benglis, Ahmedabad, India, 1988
Garry Winogrand, New York City, 1957
William S Burroughs, Democratic National Convention, Chicago, 1968.
David Hockney, London, 1972. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel
Gallery, San Francisco
Little Richard Penniman, New York City, 1963. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Richard Benson, Newport, Rhode Island, 2010. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Lafayette, Louisiana, 1968. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery,
San Francisco
New York City, 1959. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery,
San Francisco
New Orleans, 1968. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Okeene, Oklahoma, 1969. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery,
San Francisco
New Orleans, 1982. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
New Orleans, 1961. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
New York City, 1972. Gelatin silver print. © Lee Friedlander, Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
Ralph Spencer, Doncaster, England, 1964.
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