id: 171689 accession number: 2014.450 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2014.450 updated: 2023-08-24 01:05:58.068000 Costumed and Face Painted Audience Member at a Performance of the "Cockettes", New York City, 1971. Leonard Freed (American, 1929–2006). Gelatin silver print; image: 24.2 x 16.2 cm (9 1/2 x 6 3/8 in.); paper: 25.3 x 20.3 cm (9 15/16 x 8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Jon and Nicky Ungar 2014.450 © Leonard Freed /Magnum Photos title: Costumed and Face Painted Audience Member at a Performance of the "Cockettes", New York City title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1971 creation date earliest: 1971 creation date latest: 1971 current location: creditline: Gift of Jon and Nicky Ungar copyright: © Leonard Freed /Magnum Photos --- culture: America, 20th century technique: gelatin silver print department: Photography collection: PH - American 1951-Present type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Leonard Freed (American, 1929–2006) - artist Born in Brooklyn to Jewish, working-class parents of Eastern European descent, Leonard Freed (1929–2006) went to Europe to become a painter but instead discovered photography. After studying the medium in New York City, he worked as a documentary photographer and photojournalist in Europe. In 1972 he joined Magnum, the celebrated collaborative photo agency. Freed’s photographs in this exhibition are from Black in White America, a series inspired by an experience he had while covering the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. As he photographed an African American soldier guarding the border, it struck Freed that this man was risking his life to defend a country that limited his own rights. Freed returned to New York to undertake a multiyear exploration of African American life. Freed began shooting around New York, and then traveled extensively throughout the South. He spent time in communities getting to know his subjects, and kept a journal recording his impressions and their stories and words. During these years, he also covered Martin Luther King Jr. and numerous civil rights events, but when Freed published Black in White America in 1968, the book focused instead on the fabric of daily life. As a photojournalist, Freed was an observer rather than a participant, but not an impartial one. He believed that “photography is about who you are. It’s the seeking of truth in relation to yourself.” --- measurements: Image: 24.2 x 16.2 cm (9 1/2 x 6 3/8 in.); Paper: 25.3 x 20.3 cm (9 15/16 x 8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in pencil on verso: "LFGAY-24.1" Written in pencil on verso: "4000" Stamped in blue ink on verso: "113/A (stamped in black ink)" Stamped in black ink on verso: "VINTAGE PRINT" Written in pencil on verso: "71-27-4-37" Written in pencil on verso: "1971 NEW YORK CITY, USA" Written in pencil on verso: "Leonard Freed (signed)" Stamped in black ink on verso: "© Leonard Freed-Magnum" Imprinted in black type on paper label adhered to verso: "MAGNUM/15 West 46 Street, New York, New York 10036/© Leonard Freed-Magnum USA 1971 (written in pencil)/In New Yorks East Village trans-/vestites in the audience dres-/sed up to attend the transvestites/theatre performance by the/Cockettes from California./021 (crossed out) 71 (written in pencil)-27-4-37" Commercially imprinted throughout verso of paper: "Agfa" translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES