{
"data": {
"id": 438623,
"accession_number": "2021.34",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Selma, 1965, printed c. 1970. Leonard Freed (American, 1929\u20132006). Gelatin silver print; image: 22 x 32.7 cm (8 11/16 x 12 7/8 in.); paper: 27.8 x 35.2 cm (10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg, 2021.34",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Selma",
"creation_date": "1965, printed c. 1970",
"creation_date_earliest": 1965,
"creation_date_latest": 1965,
"artists_tags": [
"Jewish artists",
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1951-Present",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 22 x 32.7 cm (8 11/16 x 12 7/8 in.); Paper: 27.8 x 35.2 cm (10 15/16 x 13 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.22,
"height_inch": 8,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.327,
"width_inch": 12,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
},
"paper": {
"height": 0.278,
"height_inch": 10,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"width": 0.352,
"width_inch": 13,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on verso: \"LFBWA-137/6000 pg 136-7\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on verso: \"Leonard Freed (signed)\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on verso: \"Book: Black in White America/1965 Selma, AL USA\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on verso: \"Early print/63-26-1-14A\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg, Scarsdale, NY",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-2021",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "March 1, 2021",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Music was an essential element of the Civil Rights Movement protests in the 1960s.",
"description": "Music was an important component of the Selma demonstrations according to Carl Benkert, \u201cmusic in song expressing hope and sorrow, music to pacify or excite.\u201d The Detroiter recorded his fellow protesters singing Freedom Songs. They adapted the words of these hymns and popular songs to fit their situations, substituting the names of the moment\u2019s heroes and oppressors.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117246715"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2021.34",
"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": 438623,
"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": "2021-03-01T00:00:00-05:00",
"sortable_date": 1965,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1965, printed c. 1970",
"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 06:54:14.244000"
}
}