Cleveland Clinic, Intensive Care Unit
2011
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 26 × 25.4 cm (10 1/4 × 10 in.) sheet: 35.5 × 27.8 cm (14 × 10 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Randi and Bob Fisher Fund
Accession Number
2013.64.1
Art Historical Context
In 2011, acclaimed American photographer Lee Friedlander captured *Cleveland Clinic, Intensive Care*, a poignant gelatin silver print that peers into the high-stakes world of modern medicine. Friedlander, a master of street photography since the 195s and a key figure in the "social landscape" movement, often transforms ordinary scenes into multifaceted visual puzzles. Here, he turns the sterile intensity of a hospital ICU—filled with beeping monitors, medical staff, and vulnerable patients—into a study of human fragility amid technological precision. Printed in the traditional gelatin silver ...
About the Artist
Lee Friedlander
Lee Friedlander, born on July 14, 1934, in Aberdeen, Washington, to a Finnish-descended mother, Kaari Nurmi, and German-Jewish émigré father, Fritz Friedlander, discovered photography at age 14 amid a fascination with the medium's equipment. Tragedy marked his childhood when his mother died of cancer at age seven, yet he pursued his passion, earning pocket money with a camera before studying under...