The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 24, 2025

Cleveland

1980

Lee Friedlander

(American, b. 1934)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 19.2 x 28.6 cm (7 9/16 x 11 1/4 in.); Paper: 27.9 x 35.2 cm (11 x 13 7/8 in.)
Gift of Andrew Smith and Claire Lozier 2020.92
© Lee Friedlander
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The term “Rust Belt” first appeared in 1982.

Description

This 1980 photograph from Lee Friedlander’s Factory Valleys series documents the decline of America’s industrial heartland. The bleak scene provides a glimpse of Cleveland’s downtown office towers in the distance. But to arrive there, we must scramble across an inhospitable, weedy landscape littered with idled industrial structures and smokeless smokestacks. The compositional chaos of the image echoes the emotional and social disruption Friedlander felt in the region.
  • Joshua Smith, Washington, D.C.
    May 19, 2007
    (Rago Auction, Lampertville, NJ)
    2007-2020
    Andrew Smith and Claire Lozier, Tucson, AZ
    March 2, 2020
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Friedlander, Lee. Factory Valleys: Ohio & Pennsylvania. New York, N.Y.: Callaway Editions, 1982.
  • {{cite web|title=Cleveland|url=false|author=Lee Friedlander|year=1980|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.92