James Friedman – Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing

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“I do not remember any kissing between family members as I was growing up. It wasn’t until my mother was hospitalized for eight months, unable to speak, that we began to kiss good-bye before I would depart for the day after visiting her. These newly discovered displays of affection were imbued with genuine caring and profound sadness as we both know she had only a short time to live. Our relationship in my mother’s final months inspired my photographic project, Pleasures and Terrors of Kissing.”

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More images and other interesting projects on James Friedman’s website, rediscovered on Too Many Kisses. James Friedman was also featured on Oitzarisme with the project about his mother and 1 029 398 cigarettes.

“As a five-year old using a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera, I took a self-portrait, became fascinated with photography and have been photographing ever since. Self-taught in photography until college, I was a participant in The Ohio State University Honors Program and earned a B.F.A. degree with Distinction in Photography. (…) As a teacher, curator, picture editor, and as a fine art, portrait, architectural, commercial and personal documentary photographer, I have enjoyed a wide-ranging career in photography. My work has been exhibited internationally and been published in numerous books and discussed in Artforum, Arts, Afterimage, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Village Voice and The New York Times. (…) In 2008, as an independent photographic educator without institutional affiliation, I was nominated for the prestigious Excellence in Photographic Teaching Award, which recognizes outstanding international teachers of photography.”