Penelope’s Hungry Eyes

Penelope’s Hungry Eyes, published digitally for the first time, collects portrait photographs of famous contemporary photographers taken over a period of more than 20 years. Abe Frajndlich undertook to photograph the legends within his own craft back in 1988, when he was commissioned by Life Magazine to take portraits of the ‘Grandes Dames’ of photography. The project soon expanded to include the ‘Old Boys’ as well, and thenceforth became an all-encompassing 30-year quest.


The result is a comprehensive compendium of key figures in photography from the last 50-years, covering the old masters of American photography from Ansel Adams to Minor White, from Cindy Sherman to the Dusseldorf School. Each image is accompanied by an audio exert, in which the author Frajndlich recalls the life and work of the photographer, as well as his own special relationship with the artist and their work.


Abe Frajndlich, born in Frankfurt/Main in 1946, studied photography with American photographer Minor White and English literature at Northwestern University in Evanston/Illinois.