Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

Currently not on view

Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

1969

Lee Friedlander (American, born 1934)

This photograph demonstrates Friedlander's sophisticated consideration of the relationship between a spectacle and its audience. The photographer turns away from Mount Rushmore in order to capture an ironic scene: tourists stand inside the visitors' center, seemingly disinterested in the monument they came to witness firsthand. The two sightseers in the foreground, while actively looking at the spectacular manmade site, filter their experience of Mount Rushmore through binoculars and a camera's viewfinder. Although these optical devices provide an enhanced view and a permanent record of the imposing monument, they also block the viewers from an unmediated experience of the site.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

Date:

1969

Artist:

Lee Friedlander (American, born 1934)

Medium:

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions:

Image: 7 7/16 × 11 1/8 inches (18.9 × 28.3 cm) Sheet: 11 × 13 15/16 inches (27.9 × 35.4 cm)

Classification:

Photographs

Credit Line:

Purchased with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and matching funds contributed by Lynne and Harold Honickman, the J. J. Medveckis Foundation, Harvey S. Shipley Miller and J. Randall Plummer, and D. Robert Yarnall, Jr., 1988

Accession Number:

1988-63-9

Geography:

Photograph taken in Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota, United States, North and Central America

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Currently not on view