One could make the case that Lee Friedlander is one of the the five greatest street photographers of all time, if there is even any sense in making such a list. And he sure does publish a lot of photography books. Monographs. Beautiful hardcover coffee-table books on various subjects, all featuring his distinctive black-and-white vision of the world.
But there are so many! I counted, on his author page on Amazon.com, no less than 17 titles issued since 2010. The work is dynamic, thought provoking and just plain fun to look at. One certainly has to admire his productivity and his obsession with photography. But whatever happened to less is more? Or, as they do in show business, exit the stage with the crowd on its feet clapping?
A museum director in New York that I recently encountered responded to this question with… well, he’s an artist. Artists don’t have to observe conventional rules or ideas of what is appropriate. All well and good, but is there really an audience for so many Lee Friedlander hardcover coffee-table monographs? These are expensively-produced tomes by top art book publishers like MOMA, Steidl and Yale University Press.
He was interviewed a few years ago by his grandson Giancarlo Roma, part of an artists’ talk series at the New York Public Library. This interview was noteworthy for its length and also for how little he said about his work. Maybe he just couldn’t describe it. It struck me that this is truly a case of the work speaking for itself. But I wonder how much of a market there is for all of these books. His work is not really commercial and it doesn’t appear to me that it would catch on with a wide audience. Do these books make money, or are publishers willing to take a loss in exchange for giving voice to the overflowing vision of this unique artist? Just curious.