Leonard Freed
Leonard Freed: A Memorial Retrospective
May 4 - 16, 2007
Leica Gallery
670 Broadway
New York City 10012
212 777 3051
Leonard Freed became a member of Magnum Photos in 1972 and in the tradition of that prestigious agency directed much of his efforts into significant, long-ranging projects exploring social mores, religions, societal discrimination and violence as well as a myriad of topics throughout the world. His work was published in major newspapers and periodicals including Life, Look, Paris Match, The New York Times Magazine, GEO, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, Stern and Fortune. In these and in many other publications he covered the American civil rights movement; Polish and Asian immigration into England; North Sea oil development; Spain since Franco; the Ku Klux Klan; Crete, Cyprus and Turkey; gambling in Atlantic City; Lebanon at war; the U.S. Army in Germany; the death of Black children in Atlanta; Venice and its residents; and the Millennium in Rome. He also fillmed four films for Japanese, Dutch and Belgian television. Freed received a New York State Grant for the Arts in 1978 and a National Endowment for the Arts in 1980. During his lifetime, there were thirty solo exhibitions of his photography throughout the world and his work is part of the collections of such public insititutions as the International Center of Photography and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris); Israel Museum (Jerusalem); the Swiss Foundation (Zurich); Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam); and the Museum Folkwang (Essen).
Leonard Freed died in Garrison, New York on 30 November 2006. He is survived by his wife, Brigitte, whom he married in 1958, a daughter, Elke Susannah, and two grandsons.
Text from Rose and Jay Deutsch, Directors, Leica Gallery, NYC