Channeling Lee Friedlander: Discover the Art of Capturing Unseen Urban and Rural Life

Explore Documentary Photography Through Windows, Fences, and Shadows in Overlooked Landscapes

Through the Western Window (2023). Photo by Matthew Bamberg

Have you ever been on a street photography shoot to photograph scenes that most photographers avoid? If you have, you could be emulating Lee Friedlander.

Friedlander’s photographs of street scenes with shadows have shown the complexity of urban landscapes. He was said to be influenced by the book The Americans, which was photographed by Robert Frank and includes text by Jack Kerouac. The book contained images (many of which were solemn) obtained on a cross-country trip across America in the mid-1950s.

One of Frank’s better-known photographs is of a motel room bed with a television at the end. A baby is seen on the screen. Also notable were the images he took of Madonna in the late ’70s that appeared in Playboy in 1985. He was paid only $25 for the photo shoot—one of the photos recently sold for $37,500 at an auction house in New York.

Later in his life, Friedlander photographed stems of plants because they reminded him of his leg…