Lee Friedlander: Maria

Lee Friedlander: Maria presents a seven-decade portrait of the artist’s wife, muse, and most recurrent subject, tracing the arc of the couple’s relationship through marriage, parenthood, grandparenthood, and beyond. Spanning the 1950s to the 2020s, Friedlander’s photographs of Maria constitute one of the longest extended portraits in the history of visual art. While the approximately 50 photographs chronicle the unfolding of the couple’s relationship, they simultaneously chart the evolution of Friedlander’s artistic vision. The photographs catalogue scenes from everyday life—Maria reading, driving, talking on the phone, lying in the sun, reading another book. Many images reflect Friedlander’s sustained appreciation for his wife’s self-possessed style, recording her chic look through decades of print dresses and oversized sunglasses. In some, nothing more happens beyond a man marveling at his wife. Other portraits take on the attributes of Friedlander’s idiosyncratic approach to image-making—Maria’s silhouette casts a shadow on a newspaper at breakfast, or her face appears among reflected clouds in a truck’s windows. Some nod to Friedlander’s own presence or absence—his empty suit jacket hangs on a doorknob while Maria sleeps, and his shadow falls across her in a doorway. Friedlander’s photographs belong to a tradition of artists who have made long-term studies of their spouses. But in these images, Maria is rarely a classical muse. Rather she is startlingly human and vulnerable, regarding Friedlander’s lens without pretense. Made over a period in which the role of photography in everyday life has changed profoundly, Friedlander’s lifelong portrait is a singular look at a rich and complicated partnership.