Renowned Brooklyn photographer met his wife in the ‘Eternal City’
Brooklynites In Rome
Renowned photographer Leonard Freed was born in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn in 1929 to working class Jewish parents of Russian descent. He was a member of the well-known Magnum Photography Collective from 1972 until his death in 2006.
Initially he wanted to be a painter, but found that his creative instincts and passion, while shooting documentary photographs in the Netherlands in 1952, were better suited for the photograph. He is officially described as a “documentary photojournalist.” Freed’s natural instinct for timing and composition, combined with his journalistic storytelling skills, have caused some photography critics to compare his artistry to that of Shakespeare.
Freed traveled a great deal throughout the world during his career, producing photo essays for prominent publications such as Der Spiegel, Di Zeit, Liberation, Life, Look, Paris-Match and The Sunday Times Magazine of London.
He documented high-profile events such as the American civil rights movement in the 1960s, and traveled with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his march from Alabama to Washington, D.C. During this period, he became well known in 1968 with the publication of his book “Black in White America.”
Later, in 1980, he published a book of photographs and text titled “Police Work,” based on his behind-the-scenes photographs and observations of New York City law enforcement at work. He also documented the Arab-Israeli wars of the late 1960s and early ’70s. A large swath of his excellent photo reporting is based on his specific interest in violence and racial discrimination in America, and he also produced thousands of photographs documenting the life of Jewish people around the world in the decade following WWII in Amsterdam and the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Freed also shot four films for Japanese, Dutch and Belgian television. It would be impossible to cover in a newspaper article every aspect of Freed’s prolific and multifaceted career as a photo journalist.