RA Friedman, 10 28 20, Drafting lead on acid-free drawing paper, 7” x 7”, 2020
January 20, 2021
Amie Potsic interviews RA Friedman about his Philadelphia COVID-19 Portrait Project, which memorialized Philadelphians lost to the virus. Friedman discusses how to bring a portrait alive from minimal photographic sources and how others can get involved and collaborate on his project.
RA Friedman is an accomplished artist whose work involves the interplay between the objectivity of the camera and the subjectivity of the hand made. Adept at photography, drawing, and recrafting older technologies, Friedman’s work melds the human figure’s ability to convey intimate and complex states of being with the expressiveness of mark-making and time-based discovery. Deeply introspective as well as collaborative, his work gives voice to our personal, artistic, and collective histories.
Friedman’s current focus, The Philadelphia COVID-19 Portrait Project, seeks to honor and memorialize the thousands of Philadelphians lost to the virus. Working from obituary and family provided photographs, Friedman has gained national attention for drawing portraits of COVID-19 victims as a means of documentation and artistic dialogue. While RA does not personally know the individuals, he spends time with them, in silence, at his easel, with the light traces captured by the camera. Feeling that he is not so much looking at them, but into them, his portraits invite us to think about who they were, what their lives were like, and how America failed them. Their faces, their spirits, burned into our memories. Incorporating the drawings and the voices of loved ones into projection-based installations, Friedman memorializes individual lives and reflects in dialogue with their humanity.
RA Friedman, 07 06 20, 7 ½” x 6 ½” Drafting lead on acid-free drawing paper
RA Friedman, 08 28 20, 9” x 6” Drafting lead on acid-free drawing paper
RA Friedman, 10 30 20, 7” x 7” Drafting lead on acid-free drawing paper (DB56)
RA Friedman, 08 31 20, 9” x 8 ¼” Drafting lead on acid-free drawing paper
RA Friedman, 11 05 20, 5 ½” x 5 ½” Drafting lead on acid-free drawing paper (DB57)
RA Friedman, 07 02 20, 8” x 7 3/8” Drafting lead on acid-free drawing paper
Get Involved
RA Friedman is seeking to grow the project and honor more individuals by inviting families of those lost and artists to collaborate. If you are a family member of a loved one lost to Covid-19 in the Greater Philadelphia area and want to contribute an image of your family member to the project or you are an artist wanting to join the portrait drawing project, you can find more information and contact RA directly at rafriedman.com and on Facebook at The Trouble I've Seen: Portraits of Philadelphians Lost to COVID-19.
RA Friedman Biography
RA Friedman is an accomplished artist whose unique approach involves photography, drawing, and recrafting older technologies. Friedman received a BA in Technical Theatre from Harpur College, SUNY, and an MFA in Painting from Louisiana State University. He has exhibited his work nationally in venues including The Merchant’s House Museum, Pratt Institute Manhattan, and Stephen Romano Gallery in New York. In 2019, Friedman was awarded a residency and solo exhibition at the Center for Arts and History in Lewiston, Idaho. Friedman founded “Tsirkus Fotografika” (The Circus of Photography) and has created public art projects with Mural Arts of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Friedman is an instructor at Pratt Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and has published his work in Peau Magazine, F-Stop, What A Roll (Spain), and the Supplementaire (UK). His current work, The Philadelphia Covid-19 Portrait Project, has been featured on ABC and NBC TV and published in the Broad Street Review and The Philadelphia Inquirer.