Portraits

"Portraits" is the first volume of "The Human Clay," a six-part series Lee Friedlander drew from his own archive. It gathers more than three hundred pictures of the musicians, writers, and artists he has photographed over four decades.

Yale University Art Gallery and Yale University Press published the book in 2015. It was one of six volumes the series released over three years, each chosen and sequenced by Friedlander himself around a single category of subject. Many sitters appear in private spaces rather than public ones. Artists Maya Lin and Walker Evans show up unguarded, caught in living rooms and kitchens; others, such as Fats Domino and Derek Jeter, appear surrounded by the trappings of their fame. The volume runs 224 pages with 234 duotone illustrations.

Friedlander was born in 1934. He has spent his career photographing family, friends, and public figures in the ordinary settings of their lives rather than staged studio conditions. "The Human Clay" extends that habit of looking to the full range of people who have passed through his archive.