Collection Online as of December 7, 2023

The old town, black and whites live together on same street but not in the same houses. "This is a white only sign." Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A.

1965

Leonard Freed

(American, 1929–2006)

America

Vintage gelatin silver print

Image: 23.9 x 16.2 cm (9 7/16 x 6 3/8 in.); Paper: 25.1 x 19.2 cm (9 7/8 x 7 9/16 in.)

Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg 2016.281

Location

not on view

Inscriptions

Inscription

Written in pencil on verso: “LFBWA-033.1/7500” Written in red ink on verso: “Blacks: Segregation/racial/[illegible word]” Imprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: “AA3907” Written in pencil on verso: “64171” Stamped in purple ink on verso: “Photograph By/Leonard Freed/© 1969 MAGNUM PHOTOS/72 West 45th Street, N.Y.C. 10036” Written in pencil on verso: “39549” Written in pencil on verso: “736 630 729 68212 35206 [crossed out in pencil]/29545 [crossed out in pencil] 55395” Stamped in black ink on verso: “MAGNUM/PHOTO LIBRARY PRINT/NEW YORK./various numbers scattered throughout stamp and written in pencil: 40383 24722 10449 20811 16032 9461 41454 34855 36755 30401 27160 27541 34178/LOG REF:/TO BE RETURNED” Written in pencil on verso: “R215/18” Imprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: “Consignment/#86028 cz” Written in blue ink on verso: “17 [circled]” Written in blue ink on verso: “S [circled]” Written in blue ink on verso: “67706” Written in black ink on verso: “1965 USA” Stamped in black ink on verso: “© Leonard Freed-Magnum” Stamped in black ink on verso: “VINTAGE PRINT” Written in pencil on verso: “69444” Written in pencil on verso: “Book: Black in White/America” Imprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: “Consignment/#79746 jim” Written in black ink on white adhesive label on verso: “CIVIL RIGHTS” Imprinted in black type on white adhesive label on verso: “BLACKS/SEGREGATION” Written in pencil on verso: “63-23-4-18” Written in pencil on verso: “1965 Charleston, South Carolina, USA” Stamped in black ink on verso: “VINTAGE PRINT” Written in blue ink on verso: “75084” Written in pencil on verso: “Leonard Freed (signed)” Stamped in black ink on verso: “© Leonard Freed-Magnum”

Leonard Freed

Born in Brooklyn to Jewish, working-class parents of Eastern European descent, Leonard Freed (1929–2006) went to Europe to become a painter but instead discovered photography. After studying the medium in New York City, he worked as a documentary photographer and photojournalist in Europe. In 1972 he joined Magnum, the celebrated collaborative photo agency. Freed’s photographs in this exhibition are from Black in White America, a series inspired by an experience he had while covering the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. As he photographed an African American soldier guarding the border, it struck Freed that this man was risking his life to defend a country that limited his own rights. Freed returned to New York to undertake a multiyear exploration of African American life. Freed began shooting around New York, and then traveled extensively throughout the South. He spent time in communities getting to know his subjects, and kept a journal recording his impressions and their stories and words. During these years, he also covered Martin Luther King Jr. and numerous civil rights events, but when Freed published Black in White America in 1968, the book focused instead on the fabric of daily life. As a photojournalist, Freed was an observer rather than a participant, but not an impartial one. He believed that “photography is about who you are. It’s the seeking of truth in relation to yourself.”

Exhibition history

Black in America: Louis Draper and Leonard Freed. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 26-July 30, 2017).