Ray Friedman
Photography
BIO
I have been taking pictures since I was 14. More than anything, it gave me a way to find my place in the world -- capturing images gave me a reason to be in new places, and permission to be there. While friends were hunting, I was there with my camera. When rock concerts were happening, I was there with a camera. While watching anti-war protests, I was there with my camera.
​
When I went to college, I studied photography formally for the first time. At Yale, I was fortunate to have classes with two great artists, Larry Fink and Tod Papageorge. Larry always saw the physicality of the image -- the weight, size, and place of people conveyed by images. Tod was more about juxtaposition and irony, and the ways people saw (or didn't see) each other. Both helped me grow in new directions.
After college, I received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to do a photographic study of social change in Malaysia. I went to a village in Kedah, and followed one family, documenting how the lives of the children -- as teacher, businessman, and factory worker -- differed from that of their farmer parents. I traveled the country taking pictures, and did my lab work at University Sains Malaysia. Thanks so much to Professor James Scott for introducing me to the family. One of my photos can be seen on the cover of Jim's now classic book in political science, Weapons of the Weak.
​
Upon my return to the US, I started my academic career. I studied for my Ph.D. in sociology at University of Chicago, taking my first teaching job at Harvard Business School. I moved to Vanderbilt University in 1994, where I am now a Professor of Management, doing research on negotiation, conflict management, race, and Chinese management.
​
But after tenure, finally having some time to spare, I returned to photography -- this time moving to digital cameras, and inkjet printing. A few years ago I benefited greatly from the teaching and advice of Craig Varjabedian, who work does much of his work in New Mexico. What you see here is a sample of my work over the last decade.