Carol Friedman Bio- 2025 Honoree | The Gordon Parks Mus

“Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award” 2025 Recipient

Carol Friedman

Portrait Photographer and Filmmaker

Carol Friedman is a New York portrait photographer and filmmaker who has documented icons of the art, music and business worlds for more than three decades. Her photographs have been featured in The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, Gentleman’s Quarterly, Rolling Stone, Forbes, and The London Times, and appear on numerous book covers including the memoirs and biographies of Jessye Norman, Ron Carter, Albert Murray, Randy Weston, Al Green, and Gil Evans. She is the author of The Jazz Pictures, A Moment’s Notice: Portraits of American Jazz Musicians, and the children’s book Nicky The Jazz Cat.

Renowned for her work in the music industry, Friedman’s classic portraits of singers and musicians appear on hundreds of jazz, soul, blues, and classical album and CD covers for legendary artists from Nina Simone and Quincy Jones to Yo-Yo Ma and Eric B. and Rakim. In addition to her camera work, Friedman helmed the art and design divisions of several major record labels; serving as chief photographer and art director for Blue Note Records, creative director for Elektra Entertainment, and vice-president of creative for Motown.

An avowed jazz fan, Friedman’s ongoing photography sessions with jazz legends and the innovators on the new jazz frontier bring her the most pleasure. She began photographing the jazz masters as a student, inspired by the music and her studies with Life Magazine photographer Philippe Halsman, embracing Halsman’s maxim that “a portrait is successful only if it reveals the emotional identity of your subject.” The ever-evolving music community and Halsman’s imperative continues to inform and inspire her work. Friedman is presently photographing and designing album covers, working on several book projects, and editing The Music Is The Magic, her feature-length documentary film on the life and work of singer Abbey Lincoln.