Glen E.
Friedman
Glen E. Friedman is considered by many to be the most important photographer of his generation, and started his illustrious career by being published in SkateBoarder Magazine at the age of 14. He is most well known for his influential and iconic images of rebellious artists, from classic Skateboarding, Punk and Hip- Hop cultures, but it was with the DogTown skateboarding scene where Glen cut his teeth with the notorious crew, capturing the first published image of Tony Alva’s frontside air, amongst many others. Friedman has been crucial to the recognition of a historical era, and in popular culture as a whole, by publishing many books where these skaters are given the same status as other cultural icons. Consulting/co-producing on the groundbreaking movie “DogTown and Z-Boys” was another incredible contribution. Friedman worked for Thrasher in its early days as well, and has contributed to SkateBoarder through its many incarnations. He pioneered photographic techniques of the day that are now standard. In music, Russell Simmons credits Friedman with shaping the image of hip-hop, helping it to cross over, “He understood things when no one else did. His shit is really legitimate. He was there when nobody else was— a lot of people do it now, but he was a pioneer, and he helped shape what now exists.”
Photographs have been exhibited in art galleries and museums worldwide. Original prints of his work are in the photography collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Photographic History Collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., as well as the permanent collection of the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle, Washington, many institutions of higher learning and private collections globally.