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Obituary
Leonard Freed
Leonard Freed, an internationally acclaimed photographer who lived in Garrison and New York City died of cancer on Nov. 30 at the age of 77.
Leonard Freed was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1929 to a working class family of radical Jews from Eastern Europe. Freed took trips to Europe and North Africa in the early 50s and thought he wanted to become a painter. He studied in Alexei Brodovitch's design laboratory. Eventually Freed was intrigued by photography and how it could tell stories and explore life. Edward Steichen, then Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art learned of Freed's work and told him that he was one of the three best young photographers he had seen. Steichen advised Freed to remain an amateur and bought three of Freed's photos for the Museum.
In the early 60s Freed was living in the Netherlands when the photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in European newspapers compelled him to return to the United States. Freed became famous for his subtle and thoughtful images which provided context for some of the most meaningful events that took place in America in the 1960s. Freed became famous with the publication of his book Black in White America in 1968.
In 1972 Leonard Freed joined the highly regarded group of
Magnum photographers. He had worked on international assignments for the major international press including: Life, Paris Match, Der Spiegel, New York Times Magazine, Fortune, etc. Photography became Freed's way of exploring complex issues such as societal violence and racial discrimination.
In 1980 his book Police Work made statements about police brutality in words and pictures. Through photography Freed confronted the Ku Klux Klan, German society, and his own Jewish roots. More than 10 books have been published on Freed's work. Freed's photos are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, Stedelijk Museum, Smithsonian, Getty Museum, Jewish Museum, High Museum, etc. and various university, corporate and individual collections.
In the past weeks Freed was very pleased to learn that his retrospective will continue through March 2007 at the Brill Gallery in North Adams, MA and that major exhibits of his photographs will take place at the Musee de l'Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland and the Leica Gallery in NYC and that his latest book on Venice will be published in the coming months. Freed leaves behind his wife Brigitte and daughter Susannah.
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