“THE PURE JOY OF LOOKING AT THE WORLD—AND LOOKING HARD”

FRIEDLANDER, Lee. Like a One-Eyed Cat. Photographs by Lee Friedlander 1956-1987. New York: Harry N. Abrams, (1989). Oblong quarto, original yellow cloth, original dust jacket. $850.

First edition of the first book to survey the photographer’s career, signed by Lee Friedlander, and published in coordination with the Seattle Art Museum’s exhibit of the “largest and most comprehensive presentation of Friedlander’s vision” then undertaken. With 153 black-and-white photographs.

Describing his artistic process, one that has earned him three Guggenheim fellowships and the MacArthur Foundation Award, Lee Friedlander once said that he always let his "eye do the thinking. There is something elusive out there and what you are doing is trying to get it on film." That intuitive, complex and often witty sensibility is revealed here in the first book to encompass the first three decades of his work. Lee Friedlander's "point of view and subject matter is so distinctive," wrote Newsweek, that what we can't help recognizing is a "hunger to see and record the world in all its gawky beauty… what you get is the pure joy of looking at the world—and looking hard." With accompanying text by Rod Slemmons.

A fine copy. Scarce signed.