The Idealist: Glen E. Friedman in My Eyes - Twenty Years

Arts & Photography

Glen F. Friedman

Individual Artists

Burning Flags Press

The Idealist showcases the fine art photography of Glen E. Friedman, who many including the Washington Post call "One of the greats of his generation." The Idealist is the work of a true visionary, effortlessly mixing landscapes, still life, and documentary photography, and calling parallel to his own innate idealism through the images, and by including original comments from some of the most progressive, and politically controversial thinkers of our time – Ralph Nader, Reverend Al Sharpton, Ian MacKaye, Cornel West, and Ian Svenonius. 
This collection of photographs from 25 years (1976 - 2001) of Friedman’s work concentrates on his visual aesthetic and is the public introduction to his striking fine-art photography. Though he continues a heavy focus on both imagery and message, only a few of his traditional photographs of legendary people in the hip-hop, punk and skate communities will be recognized. The Idealist traces Friedman's development as a fine-artist as his subject matter includes a breathtaking international scope of landscapes, still life, and documentary. New and old fans of his work will be delighted to see his capacity to capture essential moments of most anything he sets his eyes on, to help us open ours. 
The book size and cover have been changed slightly, over a dozen images have been removed and over two dozen new ones have been added. The book will now encompass 25 years. Adding 5 years and over a dozen pages to the original edition, as well as additional new words on Idealism contributed by Rev. Al Sharpton, Ralph Nader and Cornel West.

The Idealist: In My Eyes 25 Years

Glen E. Friedman

This incredible book is the first of all of Glen E. Friedman's books to not use anything from his past archives of infamous iconic images. It is based solely upon his most recent artistic studies and ambition. This new book, RECOGNIZE has far reaching implications on the world of modern art.As quoted from the books preface and afterward:"Glen E. Friedman's mission with RECOGNIZE is no less than 're-aligning the aesthetic' or demolishing and then re-making the rules by which we view and understand art... The re-introduction of sight into art-making and art-seeing, away from purely conceptual in-jokes and toward formal problems of light, composition and beauty. Just as Renaissance artists re-introduced the classical world's honesty and discipline to art-making, Friedman restores picture-taking to its primary and vital function: composition of the natural world, combined with a sense of wonder at the magnificence of what is all around us."- Ian Folke Svenonius, 2005"With access to a decent shelf of art books one could easily align Glen E. Friedman's work with a golden chain of initiatic transmission in Western art. This sublime aesthetic incorporates, say, Correggio at one end and Turner at the other; perhaps also in a sense the late Monet of the lily ponds...These photos are more pleasurable than one might expect because they are secretly more painful. They hide an aesthetic shock behind what first appears to be more picturesque nebulosity. They sneak up on you, gradually becoming more and more sexual, more uncomfortable. It's customary nowadays to claim we "distrust beauty" because it has betrayed us. In fact the reverse is true: our culture betrays beauty and then blames it for its lack of depth. On this edge Glen's work is dancing - hence its vertiginousness, its touch of vertigo. Real beauty is always serious."- Peter Lamborn Wilson, 2005

Recognize

Photography & Video

Fugazi, one of music s most revolutionary and gloriously indefinable bands, played their first concert on September 3, 1987. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN: The Fugazi Photographs of Glen E. Friedman was released by Burning Flags Press exactly 20 years later. The 112-page, 9 x11 hardcover book presents the best of Friedman's unparalleled photographic documentation of Fugazi's members in almost 200 color and black &amp; white images captured by Friedman onstage and off between 1986 and Fugazi s last U.S. concert in 2002. As Fugazi's Ian MacKaye explains: "While most photographers were taking photos of Fugazi, Glen was making photos with us." Fugazi evolved from Washington, DC's hardcore punk scene of the late 1970s and early 80s. While it would be impossible to fully capture Fugazi in any one medium, Friedman's book effectively complements the band's Dischord Records catalog, including seven studio albums, one soundtrack, three EPs and hundreds of live concert CDs produced from Fugazi s own soundboard recordings. Fugazi's dedication to democratic self-management, including complete artistic and financial control, has allowed the band to offer direct-mail service of its music catalog and the catalogs of many other artists from MacKaye's own Dischord Records. On indefinite hiatus since late 2002, Fugazi also directly booked its tours worldwide, and was often the first band to perform in unconventional venues around the world in order to maintain ticket prices that averaged just $5, a practice that opened many new venue doors to other touring artists. In addition, Fugazi has never marketed or licensed its name or likeness for posters, t-shirts, pins or other ancillary merchandise items. Fugazi's unwavering respect for its audience is one of the band's most indelible marks on modern music.

Keep Your Eyes Open: The Fugazi Photographs of Glen E. Friedman

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