Don't Miss 'Marching On'

PEEKSKILL, NY — A very special exhibit at the Field Library will show Leonard Freed's incomparable and iconic work late this winter.

Entitled "Marching On: Leonard Freed and The March on Washington," the exhibit will present the iconic civil rights photographs of Leonard Freed. The 22 works on display capture timeless American images: the August 28, 1963 March on Washington, the birth of the Civil Rights Movement, and intimate moments of black history.

"Marching On" is carefully curated from the personal collection of his widow and printer Brigitte Freed, who will also be at the opening reception to share memories of the now-famous portraits and how they were created.

Leonard Freed ( 1929- 2006) was a documentary photojournalist and longtime Magnum member. Born in Brooklyn to Jewish, working class parents of Eastern European descent, Freed began his career as a freelance photographer in 1954, basing himself out of Amsterdam and travelling widely throughout Europe.

While on assignment in Berlin he photographed a black soldier standing in front of the newly erected Berlin Wall. The sight of the soldier defending the West while being denied basic rights at home led Freed to return to the U.S. to document the civil rights struggle.

He produced more than a dozen books, including Black in White America (1968), on the civil rights movement, and Police Work (1980), on the realities of day-to-day life in the NYPD.

As well as his work in the United States, Freed shot continuously in Italy, Turkey, Germany, Israel, and Lebanon. He lived locally in Garrison, NY from 1980 until his death in 2006. Freed’s work is housed in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of the City of New York, The Tate Modern, and The Smithsonian Institute, among others.

The Field Library would like to thank Brigitte Freed for her generous gift of Leonard Freed’s signed and numbered photo of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, on Oct. 31, 1964 in Baltimore. It will be on exhibit in the main room.

The exhibit will run Feb. 23 to April 2. Opening Reception: Feb. 23 5-8pm.