Lee Friedlander: Sticks & Stones [Hardcover]

James Enyeart (Author), Lee Friedlander (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2004

In Sticks & Stones, Lee Friedlander offers his view of America as seen through its architecture. In 192 square-format pictures shot over the past 15 years, Friedlander has framed the familiar through his own unique way of seeing the world. Whether he's representing modest vernacular buildings or monumental skyscrapers, Friedlander liberates them from our preconceived notions and gives us a new way of looking at our surrounding environment. Shot during the course of countless trips to urban and rural areas across the country, many of them made by car (the driver's window sometimes providing Friedlander with an extra frame), these pictures capture an America as unblemished by romanticized notions of human nature as it is full of quirky human touches. Nevertheless, man's presence is not at stake here; streets, roads, fa ades, and buildings offer their own visual intrigue, without reference to their makers. And in the end, it is not even the grand buildings themselves that prick our interest, but rather the forgettable architectural elements--the poles, posts, sidewalks, fences, phone booths, alleys, parked cars--that through photographic juxtaposition with all kinds of buildings help us to discover the spirit of an Architectural America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: D.A.P./Fraenkel Gallery; First edition (October 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891024973
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024979
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 12.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #656,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY!, November 10, 2004

By 

jk (New Haven, Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lee Friedlander: Sticks & Stones (Hardcover)

For years -- probably decades -- I've been hoping to find a collection of Friedlander's great photos of the urban and suburban landscape. I'd buy almost any survey or monograph just to have the two or three examples that might be thrown in among the works of others, or among Friedlander's own wide range of subjects.

I'm delighted to say it was worth the wait. Page after beautifully printed page of these compositional masterpieces in large format -- it's almost too good to be true.

Like other photographers of "Main Street" or the strip, Friedlander finds beauty in unlikely places. Or maybe it's that he has FUN in unlikely places. His special contribution seems to be in creating a breathtaking (and often comical) tension between polar opposites: order/disorder; flat/deep; simple/complex; central/peripheral; deadpan/melodramatic; earnest/ironic; subtle/obvious; and so on. Friedlander has photographed many great jazz musicians; these photographs suggest that he has been influenced by their music, as he creates great riffs on the raw material he finds in the built environment.

Incidentally, I've seen this book in the Architecture section of some bookstores, but don't be fooled -- it is not really about buildings.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Friedlander a Genius, September 12, 2005

By 

Bennett Levine - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lee Friedlander: Sticks & Stones (Hardcover)

I was disappointed in the last Friedlander book I bought, The Desert Seen. Luckily, I had a chance to see his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art this summer. Seeing the actual prints made a huge difference and many of the images from the Desert Seen that I didn't "get", I "got" immediately at the MoMA show. I had seen a few stray images from Sticks and Stones in the past but did not realize the towering achievement that this work represented until the show. In my opinion, it is the pinnacle of his work and the aesthetic result of everything that came before. I bought the book the next week. It was beautiful in every way, including concept, execution, printing, binding, cover, and writing. The man is a genius and this book supports that contention. If you like Friedlander, you will love this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr Chain-Link Fence delivers again, May 7, 2008

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lee Friedlander: Sticks & Stones (Hardcover)

I doubt I'll ever own Lee Friedlander's masterpiece 'The American Monument' (not on retirees budget anyway) but I recently bought Sticks & Stones and I'm content to at least own his second masterpiece. What treat this book is!

Here are 196 square format photos of buildings and street scenes that only Friedland could have taken. Turn over the first few pages and you'll immediately be aware of his trademark: utility poles and chain-link fences (though it could also be any kind of street furniture) which form an integral part of the way he sees what is beyond them. By placing these visual elements up-front creates all kinds of wonders when his camera reveals what is in the distance. Throughout the book you'll come across photos that just stop you because they are so overwhelming in detail, foreground vertical and horizontal shapes and shadows merge and frame buildings in the distance which also create other shapes between themselves.

So many of these images made me smile inwardly at the way Friedland saturates many photos with irregular shapes and shadows yet what he uses to do this is just the everyday environment. There is a playfulness here that will grab your imagination and nicely you'll discover something fresh each time you open the book.

Outstanding photos demand quality printing and the book's production is superb. Printed by Meridian of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, using three hundred screen duotones on a matt semi-coated paper (in an edition of 6,000). Meridian have printed several Friedlander books. Incidentally you can see seventy-one similar photos in the fascinating monograph Friedlander though I have the impression that not all are in Sticks & Stones.

The book is a visual celebration by one of America's great photographers.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.