Although he is one of the most important American photographers of his generation, Lee Friedlander remains an enigma.

With a repertoire of subjects ranging from street scenes to nudes, self-portraits and factory workers, he has spent decades documenting the warp and weft of the American vernacular. Yet his extraordinary formal composition has always set him apart from his peers.

His new exhibition reveals what happens when Friedlander turns his painterly, avant-garde lens on the landscapes of North American parks. Featuring 36 photographs taken over a 20-year period, the show is devoted to the public spaces, including Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

"Lee Friedlander: A Ramble in Olmsted Parks" is at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until May 11.

From the archive:

I think part of the aim was to unsettle people's ideas, whether his own or other people's. To move people out of an unquestioning space and to some less settled space in which the authority of rules and structures was broken up a bit.

Diane Arbus was one of the most original and influential American artists of the 20th century.

Shot in the park