Bud Lee (1941-2015) was an award-winning, Florida-based photojournalist and artist. Lee studied fine art at the National Academy in New York and began his career as a professional photographer while serving in the U.S. military.
The exhibition at Piedmont University’s Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art in Demorest features work from the years he worked for national publications such as Esquire, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Vogue, and Mother Jones. Portraits of luminaries of the era include civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., pop artist Andy Warhol, musician Cass Elliot, and director François Truffaut. Lee’s photojournalistic coverage includes the Newark uprising of 1967 and the Cockettes, a San Francisco-based performance group active from 1969 to 1972.
This exhibition corresponds to the publication of Lee’s monograph, The War is Here: Newark 1967 (Ze Books, May 2023). The book features a foreword by the Honorable Ras Baraka, 40th Mayor of Newark, NJ, and an essay by Chris Campion.
