My new book from @mack_books . From the introduction: [In the mid-1970s], Lee Friedlander showed slides of his American Monument series in the Great Hall at Cooper Union. It was the first time he showed this work. He didn’t talk about his pictures and one could tell that the audience, largely students who are used to analyzing their work in class every week, were getting restless. Finally, someone raised their hand and asked, “What were you feeling when you took this picture?” Friedlander replied, “As I recall, I was hungry.” Like those students at Cooper Union, I, too, go to class every week. I’ve been the director of the Photography Program at Bard College since 1982. I see my role in the classroom as that of a guide – leading each student to find their voice as an artist. I see myself as much a teacher as a photographer. When I’m asked to give a public talk about my work, I think about how what I say about my pictures or my life can become a teaching situation. This may grow out of my instinct as a photographer to find the universal in the specific.