Yale University Press has published another volume in its series documenting the work of renowned photographer Lee Friedlander. Parties: The Human Clay is the fourth of six volumes scheduled for release over three years (8.14.15 AJW). As the title indicates, most of the photos are candid shots from parties, 1962-2016. Two of them depict smoky cocktail parties in Minneapolis in 1972; former Minneapolis Institute of Arts director Evan Maurer is in the center of one frame. In 1968 photos from Sardi’s Restaurant, Friedlander focuses on some celebrities: Ingrid Bergman, Robert F. Kennedy, Lotte Lenya, Pearl Bailey, et al. And I’ll mention that a 1974 photo is captioned “Muriel and Hubert Humphrey”; however, the woman is not Humphrey’s wife, Muriel. Parties is a fascinating document of party animals from yesteryear. — Mordecai Specktor
