Recognize

“Recognize your humility, recognize the power of nature, recognize the beauty of the world. It is rare to find a photography book like this, one that genuinely and with total directness conveys the spiritual qualities of the material world.” —LA Weekly

This incredible book was the first of all of Glen E. Friedman’s works to not use anything from his past archives of infamous iconic images. Recognize is based solely upon his artistic studies and ambition. A hand sewn, extra wide book of photographs of clouds from inside the clouds themselves, Recognize has far-reaching implications on the world of modern art.

From the afterword by Ian F. Svenonius: “Just as Renaissance artists reintroduced the classical world’s honesty and discipline to art making, Friedman restores picture taking to its primary and vital function: composition of the natural world, combined with a sense of wonder at the magnificence of what is all around us.”

From the preface by Peter Lamborn Wilson: “These photos are more pleasurable than one might expect because they are secretly more painful. They hide an aesthetic shock behind what first appears to be more picturesque nebulosity. They sneak up on you, gradually becoming more and more sexual, more uncomfortable. It’s customary nowadays to claim we ‘distrust beauty’ because it has betrayed us. In fact, the reverse is true: our culture betrays beauty and then blames it for its lack of depth. On this edge Glen’s work is dancing—hence its vertiginousness, its touch of vertigo. Real beauty is always serious.”