The monumental man of photography

The two hundred and thirteen photos in this sumptuous book must surely be considered Fiedlander's greatest achievement. Originally published in 1976 (the bicentennial year) when he was forty-two, the photos were selected from over a thousand mostly taken in the proceeding six years. Eakins Press Foundation published three editions, a trade version of two thousand copies, a limited edition of one hundred and fifty and a de-luxe, two-volume edition of fifty, all of them are selling for thousands if you can find them at all.

This 2017 reprint (of two thousand) is identical to the 1976 trade edition but it has an extra essay by Peter Galassi. An interesting footnote explains the unusual presentation of binding the book with three pins which is usually assumed to mean that pages could be removed for display but actually the reason was cost. Every page is printed on one side only, not two and then folded as is usual with a normal book, using pins was the only way to bind the book. I don't know what screen was used for the earlier editions but this one uses three hundred for the duotones and printed with ultraviolet inks.

The monument photos are quite extraordinary and unique to Friedlander. who else would photograph the statue of Admiral Raphael Semmes in Mobile Alabama with just a sliver of his profile showing because he was behind a street utility pole and a phone kiosk or the heads at Mount Rushmore reflected, quite small, in the visitor center windows showing tourists looking at the Presidents. What I thought was remarkable about the photos was the way Friedlander frequently pulls back and shows the statues, plaques and monuments in their environment and taking up only a small part of the total image. This is the way the locals would see them every day.

This is a big book, seventeen inches wide and designed to give the appearance of a photo album. Some pages have just one big photo with others showing between two and nine. Themes run through several pages, on one, photos 104 to 108, are all in Columbus, Ohio,  another page has nine statues of doughboys in various cities. Monument is seen by Friedlander in its broadest sense, three photos on one page show the Supreme Court Building in Washington, Federal Court Building in Oklahoma City and the Courthouse in San Angelo, Texas. All the photos have a geographic caption though oddly none are dated.

This really is a monumental book.