Jill Freedman

Jill Freedman is an American documentary photographer, based in New York.

Freedman was born in Pittsburgh, to a travelling salesman and a nurse, on 19 October 1939. She majored in sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1961. She then went to Israel, where she ran out of money and sang to make a living; she continued singing in Paris and on a television variety show in London.

Freedman arrived in New York City in 1964, and worked in advertising and as a copywriter. As a photographer, she was self-taught, influenced by André Kertész, idolizing W. Eugene Smith, but primarily helped by her poodle Fang:

When I was out walking in the street with Fang I saw everything, felt everything. He had a great instinct. He taught me how to look, because he never missed a thing.

Andy Grundberg would also note the influences on her style of Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith, Don McCullin, Leonard Freed, and Weegee; but would add that: "To appreciate [her] photographs one needs to consider their substance, not their style. . . . Human relationships – especially the bonds of brotherhood – fascinate her."

On hearing of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Freedman quit her job and went to Washington, DC. She lived in Resurrection City, a shantytown put up by the Poor People's Campaign on Washington Mall in 1968, and photographed there. Photographs from the series were published at the time in Life, and collected in Freedman's first book, Old News: Resurrection City, in 1970. A. D. Coleman wrote of the book:

It is a very personal yet highly objective statement, filled with passion, warmth, sorrow and humor. Freedman's pictures are deft and strong; her text witty, sardonic and honest, with quirky insights and touching moments of self-revelation. A brave and moving book.

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