Don Freeman
Don Freeman
Don Freeman is an American artist, film maker and photographer. His work has been widely published in French, German and American Vogue, The World of Interiors, Elle Décor and Architectural Digest. Freeman has exhibited in international galleries and private collections alike.
He has published five books of photography, which have explored interiors (Artists’ Handmade Houses, The Hotel Book: Great Escapes North America), the objet d’art (Ted Muehling: A Portrait), taking flowers back to their Dutch Renaissance beginnings (Styling Nature), and early works (My Familiar Dream, currently residing in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum).
Freeman's award-winning documentary Art House (2016) revisits the intimate domiciles of the eleven artists represented in Artists' Handmade Houses, revealing the spiritual residue their presence left in unpopulated rooms.
Don Freeman Artist’s Statement 11/12/23
My recent black-and-white photography has revisited the layering of texture and color that I worked with in the past.
In the 80’s, I used silkscreen and abstract brush strokes with acrylic paint as underpainting to add color and texture to my work. In the 90’s, I printed my photographic-based work in the darkroom on silver gelatin paper, later subjecting them to toners and other techniques to add color and invite the accidental textures and tones in the prints. Sometimes, I appropriated images from Renaissance landscape and portrait paintings.
It’s always been essential for me that I shoot traditionally, honoring the beauty of film medium, the grain, and the classic use of light and shadow. My subjects are traditional: exploring still life, landscape, objet d’art, and portraits. I captured these subjectively and uniquely to my eye, as is the printing for the final presentation, where I depart from tradition and explore techniques that recall Japanese block prints and classical painting techniques.
The paintings of Turner, Monet, and Van Gogh inspire me, as well as the films of Jean Cocteau, Carl Dreyer, and Andrei Tarkovsky.
My work tells the story of nature reflected in us. Its essence and our interactions with it, our dance. Reflections of Versailles: our past is our future; perhaps nature’s revolution is reflected to us as we eat a slice of cake–it is great comfort.
Can we achieve a balance with nature? Can we see our world through the mirrors of water and ice?
Contact information
Website: donfreemanart.com
Instagram: @donfreemanart
Email: freemanstudio@gmail.com
Art House: https://firstrunfeatures.com/arthouse.html