id: 291571
accession number: 2016.282
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2016.282
updated: 2025-02-09 07:31:20.534000
Children in the Mirror, Johns Island, South Carolina, 1964. Leonard Freed (American, 1929–2006). Vintage gelatin silver print; image: 16 x 24 cm (6 5/16 x 9 7/16 in.); paper: 24 x 29.8 cm (9 7/16 x 11 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2016.282 © Leonard Freed /Magnum Photos
title: Children in the Mirror, Johns Island, South Carolina
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1964
creation date earliest: 1964
creation date latest: 1964
current location:
creditline: Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg
copyright: © Leonard Freed /Magnum Photos
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culture: America
technique: vintage gelatin silver print
department: Photography
collection: PH - American 1951-Present
type: Photograph
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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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.”
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measurements: Image: 16 x 24 cm (6 5/16 x 9 7/16 in.); Paper: 24 x 29.8 cm (9 7/16 x 11 3/4 in.)
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inscriptions:
inscription: Written in pencil on verso: “LFBWA-50.3/6000 pg 50-51”
Written in pencil on verso: “Book: Black in White America/1964 John’s Island, S.C. USA”
Written in pencil on verso: “Leonard Freed (signed)”
Stamped in black ink on verso: “VINTAGE PRINT”
Stamped in black ink on verso: “© Leonard Freed-Magnum”
Written in pencil on verso: “63-16-2-17”
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Black in America: Louis Draper and Leonard Freed
opening date: 2017-02-26T05:00:00
Black in America: Louis Draper and Leonard Freed. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 26-July 30, 2017).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Tannenbaum, Barbara. “Black in America: Two photographers—one black, one white—look at life during the civil rights era.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 57, no. 2 (March/April 2017): 28-29.
page number: Reproduced: P. 29; Mentioned: P. 28. 29.
url:
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IMAGES