By Mark W. Olson

The “Friedlander: Photography” exhibit recently opened at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

In a word: Go.

The exhibit is a career retrospective of American photographer Lee Friedlander.

The man has been shooting for decades. Many people unsuspectingly own a piece of his earlier work in the form of an album cover photograph (Johnny Cash maybe), collecting dust in their closet.

However, Friedlander really burst on the scene in the 1960s. For the 1967 “New Documents” exhibit at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Friedlander’s work hung with photographs by Amy Arbus and Garry Winogrand. The exhibit was foretelling, because these photographers arguably became a few of the most influential landscape, portrait and street photographers (respectively) of the 20th century.

Forty years later, the Museum of Modern Art organized this retrospective.

Friedlander has taken photos in every genre (all on display), but his 1970s landscape shots really shine. This exhibit will blow the minds of those whose idea of a great landscape photograph is a flowering crab tree or a rustic building surrounded by prairie grass.

Friedlander’s photos encapsulate the visual clutter we ignore every day – the back of a metal street sign; a chain-link fence; a hand-posted sign. He takes these items and creates photos as tightly composed as stacked cinder blocks.

In many cases, the images carry commentary. For instance, a “whites only” sign on the door is shot from the inside looking out, perhaps noting the photographer’s own status.

In one of his “Letters from the People” photographs, someone scrawled on a wall “Everyday I calls a phone to her. Every night I dreams for her.” Graffiti becomes poetry, as a tugboat works its way across a foggy harbor in the background.

His “American Monuments” photographs play with the idea of what we memorialize, and how those seemingly ancient statues fit in our contemporary lives. For instance, a statute of a WWI doughboy, gun at the ready, appears to be working his way down main street, following a woman pushing as stroller.

In another, a statue of Father Duffy stands in Times Square. Behind him looms a massive Coca-Cola billboard. Duffy’s hands appear to be clenched, ready to throw out the money changers and give a beat-down to encroaching commercialization.

Friedlander’s work gives a visual beat-down. When visitors leave the exhibit, they’ll see their surroundings in a new way.

FRIEDLANDER: PHOTOGRAPHY
What: A retrospective of American photograph Lee Friedlander’s work
Where: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis
When: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Monday, closed
Cost: $8 adults; $6 students, seniors, adult groups; $4 children ages 6-12 (general museum admission is free)
Reserve tickets: (612) 870-6323
More info: www.artsmia.org