The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects

Photographs on Metal

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Photograph of a Tree  
Julius Friedman  

Photograph on metal   
ca. 2009  

Around 2009, Friedman’s photography leapt off the page. Printing pictures onto aluminum sheets, Friedman forged both a different kind of photographic image and object. The shimmering surface of the metal combined with the material’s physical heft was well suited to Friedman’s emerging fascinations with both the natural world and the human form. Designed to hang frameless, Friedman’s metal photographs assert themselves with the same calm, natural elegance as the trees and bodies depicted within. 

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Erica De La O (Ballet Series)  
Julius Friedman  

Photographs on metal   
ca. 2010  

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Erica De La O (Ballet Series)  
Julius Friedman  

Photographs on metal   
ca. 2010  

Louisville Ballet dancer Erica De La O was one of Friedman’s earliest subjects for his photographs on metal. He photographed her extensively for nearly a decade, and in time the two artists became collaborators. In 2016, De La O and another dancer, Roger Creel, performed in Friedman’s immersive multimedia nature video Rebirth at his self-curated retrospective at the Frazier History Museum. This improvisational dance performance was then turned into a short film directed by Julius Friedman and Richard Van Kleeck called The Veil.