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Iconic Street Photography
Iconic Street Photography
August 6, 2025
Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1966
© Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York and Luhring Augustine, New York
From documenting architectural changes, to singling out passers-by in an otherwise anonymous crowd: photography and the city have been inextricably linked since the modernism of the 19th century. Yet it was mostly in the mid-twentieth century that street photography developed into an influential genre of its own. This was partly due to small, light-weight 35mm-format cameras such as the Leica, which offered photographers greater mobility and, at the same time, discretion – allowing them to react at a moment’s notice, and shoot wherever they were without drawing attention. They were able to explore public spaces without artifice or interference, capturing authentic scenes and unstaged poses that would traditionally have been deemed too candid to be captured on film. The core aim was to capture what Henri Cartier-Bresson referred to as the “decisive moment” – that fleeting split-second when the light, composition and incidence merge into one meaningful story.
The presentation at the Photography Space of the Museum Ludwig is dedicated to three leading protagonists of street photography, spanning two generations: Garry Winogrand, who was born in 1928 in New York and passed away in 1984; Lee Friedlander (born 1934), who lives and works in New York; and Joseph Rodríguez, born 1951 in Brooklyn and now based in New York. Each of them follows a distinctive visual approach, creating very different results despite their shared genre. The showcase includes iconic images from the 1960s to the 1980s, as well as lesser-known works from the artists’ respective oeuvres. The exhibits stem from a donation by the Bartenbach family in 2015, a donation by Volker Heinen in 2018, as well as acquisitions by the museum starting in 2001.
Katrin UllmannThe presentation at the Photography Space of the Museum Ludwig is dedicated to three leading protagonists of street photography, spanning two generations: Garry Winogrand, who was born in 1928 in New York and passed away in 1984; Lee Friedlander (born 1934), who lives and works in New York; and Joseph Rodríguez, born 1951 in Brooklyn and now based in New York. Each of them follows a distinctive visual approach, creating very different results despite their shared genre. The showcase includes iconic images from the 1960s to the 1980s, as well as lesser-known works from the artists’ respective oeuvres. The exhibits stem from a donation by the Bartenbach family in 2015, a donation by Volker Heinen in 2018, as well as acquisitions by the museum starting in 2001.
Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1966
© Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York and Luhring Augustine, New York
Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1963
© Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York
Lee Friedlander, Mount Rushmore, 1969
© Lee Friedlander, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Luhring Augustine, New York
Joseph Rodriguez, East Village, NY, 1984
© Joseph Rodriguez, Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen
Joseph Rodriguez, 220 West Houston Street, NY, 1984
© Joseph Rodriguez, Courtesy Galerie Bene Taschen