I have come across several articles recently remembering Documentary Photographer Jill Freedman who passed on October 9th, after a battle with breast cancer, at the age of 79 in New York City. I have appreciated her work for some time and felt the need to make a blog post recognizing her work.
I saw one of her last exhibitions, in October 2017 at Steven Kasher Gallery, which I documented here in my blog in November 2017. That exhibition was made up of prints from Resurrection City. The prints were a little worn, but I enjoyed being able to see what was obviously her vintage prints. My favorite body of work from Jill is her Street Cops which should not be a surprise to anyone. I love images from New York in the 1970’s and 1980’s especially her images.
Jill told her own story on her website. She described herself as “self-taught” which is a term that usually makes me cringe. First because most the people I come across claiming to be “self taught” often aren’t great photographers, but more so I take issue with how someone can really teach themselves something. You have to see examples and find things to study, those examples really are teaching you. She spoke of finding LIFE magazines in their attic and being inspired by those images. The works of Master Photographers featured in LIFE were her teachers, as I am sure other photographers’ works. Another more important aspect is good photographers are born with some talent, she obviously had the gift of artistic eye. She also had to have an incredible spirit of adventure and a lack of fear because she documented some pretty rough neighborhoods. I never met her but I assume she was full of confidence and moxy when she had a camera in her hands; I admire that aspect of her as much any other. Simply put Jill Freedman had an eye and was a good documentary photographer. I am hopeful her images will live on in the history of the medium, they are important.
Some of the notable articles I found about Jill are:
AD Coleman who described Jill as “as street smart a person I have ever known” , which is a huge compliment considering AD is basically a life long 75 year old New Yorker - I also came across AD Coleman’s Podcast on the 40th Anniversary panel discussion of SoHo Photo, which Jill helped to found, where Jill is speaking along with other founding members.