It's little wonder that filmmaker Joel Coen struck up "an immediate rapport" with photographer Lee Friedlander. After all, as the Guardian's Sean O'Hagan comments, "the everyday landscapes in which the Coen brothers set films such as Fargo, The Big Lebowski or Barton Fink are not that far removed from the American terrain that Friedlander has made his own over six decades" - so much so that many of the latter's pictures could quite easily pass for stills from as-yet unreleased Coen brothers' flicks.
Friedlander's gallerist Jeffrey Fraenkel (the matchmaker) has observed that "[a]nyone who's seen Joel's movies knows he has a special eye for images" - and the recurrent collaborations with celebrated cinematographer Roger Deakins (himself a former photographer) just go to prove it. The visual feel and language of Coen brothers films is arguably what makes them most distinctive, and Joel has understandably identified Friedlander as a kindred spirit, someone who sees the world in much the same way - all of which made him the perfect curator of Friedlander's work for an exhibition and book.
No comments:
Post a Comment