Father Duffy, Times Square, New York City, 1974
Gelatin silver print
11 x 14 inches
Monday, January 2, 2022
Lee Friedlander is celebrated as a prolific and all-embracing chronicler of modern America. Pictures like this one, which was featured prominently in his handsomely produced 1976 publication The American Monument, reveal the way history hides in plain sight, observed, yet often unseen.
Friedlander focused here on a statue honoring Francis Patrick Duffy, the highly decorated Catholic military cleric who served heroically in World War I with the “Fighting 69th”, a mostly Irish-American unit of the New York National Guard. After the war Duffy served as pastor of Holy Cross Church on 42nd street in Manhattan. Following his death in 1932, this statue was installed in Times Square, and the surrounding blocks between 45th and 47th streets were officially named Father Duffy Square.
When Times Square hosts the New Years Eve midnight ball drop, the Father Duffy bronze is at the heart of celebration, yet nearly lost amidst the surrounding stages and glitz. This timeless Friedlander photograph celebrates the monument, with its stoic subject and quietly enduring history, which has always stood in contrast to the bustling energy of Times Square, remaining a constant in an ever-changing city.
