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Leonard Freed is one of America's great photojournalists. He was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, NY and as a young man he studied painting and graphic design. Although he originally intended on becoming a painter, he became interested in photography after studying with the influential art director Alexey Brodovitch. One of his first bodies of photographs was a study of Hasidic Jews living in Brooklyn in 1954. He showed the work to Life Magazine who introduced him to Cornell Capa, and Capa, in turn, introduced him to Magnum. Leonard Freed moved to Europe in 1956 and began working on assignments for publications including Paris-Match, GEO, London Sunday Times Magazine, and Der Stern.
In 1962, Leonard Freed went to Berlin upon hearing that a wall was being erected to divide the city. He made a now famous photograph of a an African American soldier standing alone in front of the wall and the irony struck him, African Americans at home were marching and protesting for civil rights and there in Germany was an African American soldier ready to defend his country. Leonard Freed and his family left Europe for the U.S. shortly afterwards and began making photographs in Harlem, Washington DC, and eventually throughout the South. This body of work documented the plight of the African American and was published in 1968. The name of the book was Black in White America and it sold over 60,000 copies.
Over the years Leonard Freed published 11 more books and has displayed his work in several national and international group exhibitions as well as 25 solo exhibitions. His work can be found in public collections such as the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., the International Center of Photography in New York, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Leonard Freed is a member of Magnum and continues to photograph today.
Bibliography:
- Cornell Capa, Robert Sagalyn, Judith Friedberg, Arnold Skolnick, The Concerned Photographer, New York: Grossman Publishers, 1968.
- Keith F. Davis, 2000 Acquisitions: The Hallmark Art Collection, The Hallmark Photographic Collection, Kansas City, Missouri: Hallmark Cards, Inc., 2000.
- Wiliam A. Ewing, Natalie Herschdorfer, Wim Van Sinderan, Leonard Freed: World View , Lausanne, France: Musee de l Elysee, 2008.
- Leonard Freed, Black in White America, New York: Grossman Publishers, 1967.
- Leonard Freed, Made in Germany, New York: Grossman Publishers, 1970.
- Leonard Freed, Police Work, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980.
- Leonard Freed, La Danse des Fideles, Editions du Chene, 1984.
- Leonard Freed, New York Police, Photo Notes, 1990.
- Leonard Freed, Leonard Freed, Paris: Photo Poche, 2001.
- Nathan Image, Leonard Freed: Photograpies 1954-1990, Paris: Editions Nathan, 1991.
- William Manchester, Jean Lacouture, Fred Ritchin, In Our Time: The World as Seen by Magnum Photographers, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1989.
- R.E. Martinez, Allan Porter, Camera July 1966, Lucerne, Switzerland: C J Bucher Ltd., 1966.
- Stephanie Rosenkranz, Leonard Freed, Leonard Freed Photographies 1954-1990, Paris: Editions Nathan, 1991
Member of The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD)
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