Higher Pictures opens the season with Street Cops, 1978 – 1981, an exhibition of vintage photographs by Jill Freedman.

Street Cops captures a wild period in New York City history where junkies, drunks, prostitutes and lunatics openly walked the streets. This remarkable body of work is the result of Freedman on foot patrol and riding in the police cruisers of the Ninth and Midtown South Precincts, which included Alphabet City and the raunchy blocks around Times Square. Street Cops shows an intelligent empathy towards the police and their attitudes of like-mindedness.

Jill Freedman’s work is immediate and alive. Life in Freedman’s work is real and not simulated. The works’ no-holds-barred sensibility is the result of the freedoms advantaged by a self- taught artist. This exhibition at Higher Pictures marks the first time this well known body of work has been shown in New York City.

Jill Freedman was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1939. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group shows and has had her work published in leading newspapers and magazines. Freedman’s work is in over fifteen major collections including The New York Public Library, The Museum of Modern Art, George Eastman House, International Center of Photography, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.