Stems [Hardcover]

Lee Friedlander (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2003

In 1994, suffering from aching knees and painfully concerned about it, Lee Friedlander decided to prepare himself for a sedentary life. He began to pursue the still life as a possibility and maybe a way of photographic life--a dramatic shift for a man who has spent his life photographing on the street, in the woods, on the road, at parties, anywhere but sitting down. He tried a variety of subjects with a few good results, but nothing stood out until he began to look at the fresh flowers that his wife Maria placed around their home in cut-glass vases. But never mind the flowers. True to Friedlander's style, he very quickly found himself most interested in the stems. During the months of February, May, June and December of 1994, he focused his lens on wild arrays of stems and the optical splendor produced by light refracting through the glass vases that contained them. In 1998, Friedlander had both of his knees surgically replaced. Three months of recovery time passed during which he took no pictures, the only gap in almost 50 years of working. The next year, successfully rehabilitated and walking without pain, Friedlander decided to re-apply himself to the stems and finish them off as a subject. Published in a lush, oversize volume, printed with a special dry trap process, Stems is the result of this unusual saga in the photographer's career. Lee Friedlander and his camera have now returned to the street.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.; First edition (August 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891024752
• ISBN-13: 978-1891024757
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 10.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,476,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Stems, October 14, 2003

By 

INGEBORG BONDI (PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stems (Hardcover)

This is a sensuous still life study of stems and gorgeously printed. The subject does not really matter: it might be called The Joy of Seeing. The three dimensional effect of these photographs makes for an unexpected joy .
A barbarian might cut the book up and frame the individual pages to hang on walls. The printing is superb. Could not think of a better photography gift.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding Beauty in the Mundane, January 8, 2006

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stems (Hardcover)

Lee Friedlander's monograph on STEMS not only represents a tender history of an artist's temporary battle with physical restriction and pain, it is also one of the more eloquent collections of black and white photography on a narrow subject to appear in book form.

These beautifully photographed and equally beautifully printed and presented series of images were taken when Friedlander was confined to sitting, a position not compatible with a photographer out in the fields of the world capturing life as it continues in motion. But due to physical restrictions, Friedlander had to either be artistically silent or elect to combat his dilemma by using his camera to study the simple beauty of nature at hand. And, so like his proclivities in all of his art, he elected to use the stems of flowers and plants as subject, including the cylinders and vases of water into which they had been placed. Some of the more eloquent photographs come at the end of the portfolio when Friedlander captured the containers of his subjects in the empty state - levels of water in class containers alone and in tandem. The results defy written description: these are subtle, tenuous, fragile works of art with few peers as still life.

The production of this portfolio is in keeping with the content: the cloth covered cover is in a mossy green and the binding, quality of paper and of reproductions is of the highest order. This is a unique and very beautiful book. Grady Harp, January 06

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite images, October 20, 2005

By 

Epicurean Enthusiast (Cambridge, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stems (Hardcover)

I first caught a glimpse of Friedlander's _Stems_ displayed in the MoMa store in New York. It is a gorgeous book, sitting in front of me now. I keep it open at my desk instead of an actual vase of flowers- the images are somehow haunting, melancholy, and oh so still and hushed all at the same time. If you've ever chosen a bouquet of flowers not only for their color but for their structure or shape, the ragged and choppy line of a cut orchid, or smooth sweep of a calla lily, you will adore these photographs.