Lee Friedlander Exhibition circulated by International Council of the Museum of Modern Art , New York, toured Australia l977 .
Souvenir portfolio of photographs from the tour unearthed by Little Darwin in North Queensland . Of the 50 photographs exhibited , all were taken in American, except for one shot in Paris , in the l960-70s.
Friedlander ,born 1934, in Aberdeen , Washington , began taking photographs at 14 , later studied with Edward Kaminski at the Art Center School , Los Angeles , lived in New York , received Guggenheim Fellowship grants in photography , his work widely exhibited .
The director of the Department of Photography , New York's Museum of Modern Art , John Szarkowski , said Friedlander was one of several young American photographers in the early sixties who took a different tack to the earlier romantic spirit of photography .
The subject matter of their pictures was constantly vernacular and unheroic ,which at first disguised the fact that their work represented a shift towards a more classical posture of discipline and reserve ... Friedlander was not alone in recognizing that the most unexceptional and banal material of contemporary life could justify disinterested artistic concern , but his resolution of the matter has been distinctive .
He had disguised an uncompromising aesthetic commitment by a clinically objective photographic manner , and produced false documents of elegance and irony
From an election poster , John F. Kennedy watches a person reading a notice on a window in Colorado . The Australian tour , assisted by The Visual Arts Board and the Australian Gallery Directors' Council , was displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria , University of Tasmania , the Sydney Australian Centre for Photography ,Newcastle City Art Gallery, Queensland Art Gallery, Art Gallery of South Australia ,University of Western Australia .
In the l972 Albuquerque , New Mexico, street scene, on a very quiet day , a smart dog appears to be waiting for the traffic lights to change before crossing .
