Self-Portrait
1964/1969
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image/sheet: 14.9 x 22.5 cm (5 7/8 x 8 7/8 in.) mount: 35.4 x 27.9 cm (13 15/16 x 11 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Patrons' Permanent Fund
Accession Number
2001.22.93
Art Historical Context
Lee Friedlander's *Self-Portrait* (4/1969) the innovative spirit of mid-20th-century American. Friedlander, a pioneering figure in street photography, captured this gelatin silver print during the 1960s—a transformative era when photographers like him embraced the "snapshot aesthetic" to document everyday urban life with raw, unposed immediacy. Printed around 1969 from a 1964 negative, it his lifelong fascination with self-representation, often integrating his image into chaotic cityscapes through reflections, shadows, or signage. The medium of gelatin silver print, a classic black-and-white ...
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...