id: 291577 accession number: 2016.288 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2016.288 updated: 2024-03-26 02:01:52.585000 In poor cotton picker's cabin, far from the towns and cities where the civil rights agitation is taking place, a new force has entered the lives of the isolated Negro youths. Television, with its instant communication, direct to the living rooms of the poorest, has created a revolution the likes of which the world has not seen before. Television confronts today's Negro youth with a way of life completely at odds with his own experience. The richness advertised makes him acutely aware of the gulf separating his physical and moral condition from that of the whites, North Carolina, 1964. Leonard Freed (American, 1929–2006). Vintage gelatin silver print; image: 7 x 24.7 cm (2 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.); paper: 20.3 x 25.2 cm (8 x 9 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2016.288 © Leonard Freed /Magnum Photos title: In poor cotton picker's cabin, far from the towns and cities where the civil rights agitation is taking place, a new force has entered the lives of the isolated Negro youths. Television, with its instant communication, direct to the living rooms of the poorest, has created a revolution the likes of which the world has not seen before. Television confronts today's Negro youth with a way of life completely at odds with his own experience. The richness advertised makes him acutely aware of the gulf separating his physical and moral condition from that of the whites, North 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 --- culture: America technique: vintage 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: 7 x 24.7 cm (2 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.); Paper: 20.3 x 25.2 cm (8 x 9 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written in pencil on verso: “LFBWA-131.1 7500” Imprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: “24-14 PEOPLE/MEN/A. BLACKS” Written in blue ink on verso: “2401 People: Men/A. Blacks” Stamped in black ink on verso: “© LEONARD FREED” Written in black marker on verso: “63-16-8-25” Written in pencil on verso: “1964 North Carolina-USA” Written in pencil on verso: “Book: Black in White/America” Written in pencil on verso: “Leonard Freed (signed)” Written in pencil on verso: “UNIQUE” Stamped in black ink on verso: “VINTAGE PRINT” Stamped in black ink on verso: “© Leonard Freed-Magnum” Written in pencil on verso: “56” translation: remark: --- 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). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES