{
"data": {
"id": 291581,
"accession_number": "2016.292",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "In defense of Western Civilization, an American soldier's hand rests on his gun in front of the Berlin Wall, Germany, August 1961. Leonard Freed (American, 1929\u20132006). Vintage gelatin silver print; image: 17.2 x 23.2 cm (6 3/4 x 9 1/8 in.); paper: 17.2 x 23.2 cm (6 3/4 x 9 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg, 2016.292. \u00a9 Leonard Freed /Magnum Photos",
"current_location": null,
"title": "In defense of Western Civilization, an American soldier's hand rests on his gun in front of the Berlin Wall, Germany",
"creation_date": "August 1961",
"creation_date_earliest": 1961,
"creation_date_latest": 1961,
"artists_tags": [
"Jewish artists",
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "vintage gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1951-Present",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 17.2 x 23.2 cm (6 3/4 x 9 1/8 in.); Paper: 17.2 x 23.2 cm (6 3/4 x 9 1/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.172,
"height_inch": 6,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.232,
"width_inch": 9,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.125
},
"paper": {
"height": 0.172,
"height_inch": 6,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.232,
"width_inch": 9,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Leonard Freed /Magnum Photos",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Several adhesive labels located on the print obscure some of the inscriptions and stamps. \nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201cLFBWA-212.1/7500 pg 6\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201cpag 16 foto 2 24x/[illegible word]\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201c461/2% [circled and crossed out in black crayon]\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201c47212\u201d\nImprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: \u201c[bar code] S00069683_d FRL 1965003 W00005/39 PAR148508/\u00a9 Leonard Freed/Magnum Photos/RFA. The Berlin wall./West Germany. Berlin. 1965 [crossed out in pencil, 1961 written in pencil]. American soldier standing guard at border./The Berlin Wall was constructed by the East German government in August 1961 to halt the vast numbers of East Berliners defecting to the/West and to prevent East Berliners from commuting to jobs in West Berlin, thus depleting the supply of labor in the East. In the last 28 years,/5,000 East Germans failed in their attempts. Another 5,000 managed to cross the wall; 191 died in their attempts. Another 5,000 managed/to cross safely. On November 9, the East German government announced an end to travel restrictions and huge crowds of both East and/West Berliners began several days of celebrations on and around the Berlin Wall./No photograph or digital file may be reproduced, cropped or modified (digitally or otherwise) and its caption may not be altered without prior written/agreement from Magnum or a Magnum representative.\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201cHistory-Berlin Crisis \u201861\u201d\nWritten in black ink on white adhesive label on verso: \u201cformer/W. Germany\u201d\nImprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: \u201cAA6947\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201c1961 Berlin-Germany/Book: Black in White America\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201c61146/39\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201cUNIQUE\u201d\nStamped in black ink on verso: \u201cVINTAGE PRINT\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201cLeonard Freed (signed)\u201d\nImprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: \u201cConsignment/#80532 jlm\u201d\nStamped in black ink on verso: \u201c\u00a9 Leonard Freed-Magnum\u201d\nImprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: \u201cNOTICE/Photographs must be credited to the photographer and/MAGNUM PHOTOS. Photographs may not be cropped/or altered in any way without prior written approval by/MAGNUM PHOTOS. Photographs consigned by/MAGNUM PHOTOS for your possible use may not be/scanned without the express written permission of/MAGNUM PHOTOS./VIOLATION OF THESE POLICIES WILL RESULT IN/FINES AT A MINIMUM of 100% OF THE USAGE FEE.\u201d\nCommercially imprinted throughout verso of paper: \u201cAgfa\u201d",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 292784,
"title": "Black in America: Louis Draper and Leonard Freed",
"description": "Black in America: Louis Draper and Leonard Freed. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 26-July 30, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2017-02-26T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Taking this photograph inspired Freed to return to the United States to commence a multiyear examination of African American life. It introduces his book Black in White America, and is accompanied by this statement: \u201cWe, he and I, two Americans. We meet silently and part silently. Between us, impregnable and as deadly as the wall behind him, is another wall. It is there on the trolley tracks. It crawls along the cobblestones, across frontiers and oceans, reaching back home, back into our lives and deep into our hearts: dividing us, wherever we meet. I am White and he is Black.\u201d",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79871101"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2016.292",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 291581,
"creators": [
{
"id": 64197,
"description": "Leonard Freed (American, 1929\u20132006)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Born in Brooklyn to Jewish, working-class parents of Eastern European descent, Leonard Freed (1929\u20132006) 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\u2019s 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 \u201cphotography is about who you are. It\u2019s the seeking of truth in relation to yourself.\u201d",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1929",
"death_year": "2006",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2016-12-05T00:00:00-05:00",
"sortable_date": 1961,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "August 1961",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:53:44.686000"
}
}