Portrait work by Avedon

Okay, One more entry on Richard Avedon before its seems like I'm president of his fan club.

Like I mentioned earlier, Avedon was a successful fashion / commercial photographer but wanted to be considered an 'art' photographer as well. So besides doing beautiful images of beautiful people wearing beautiful clothes, he also concentrated on making strong compelling portraits of famous people as a means to earn a certain kind of respect in that field (An interesting side note: his equally successful contemporary in the fashion photography world, Irving Penn, chose the genre of the still life instead).

Avedon's quest led him to take on an ambitious project when he traveled through the western United States and photographed regular people that caught his attention, this work culminated in an exhibition and book titled 'In the American West'. Both the book and exhibition were successful commercially and critically although it has been critically panned as well (more on why below) and helped further establish him as a household name.

Probably to differentiate his portrait work from his fashion work, Richard Avedon is known to have established a particular mode operandi to get the image that he wanted from his subject.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Waldorf Astoria, suite 28A, New York, April 16, 1957

The story goes that for the image above, Richard Avedon was telling the Duke and Duchess of an incident in which he saw a dog being hit by a car while he was heading over to the shoot. Knowing that the Duke and Duchess were avid dog-lovers, he was expecting them to have an adverse reaction to the story, making them lower their guard (the one everyone puts up when they know they are being photographed) and capture them with this look. What comes through is not one that contains the shield of a smile but one that is more raw and realistic and exposes the inner self.

Marilyn Monroe, actor, New York, May 6, 1957

We can assume that a similar thing happened here.  This is not the Marilyn Monroe persona Ms. Baker tried so hard to foster, but one in which shows her vulnerability as much as her cleavage. Gone is the tilted head thrown back with slightly opened lips and lowered eyelids that Ms. Baker used to suggest as a post-coitally satiated presence, instead we see her with slumped shoulders and lost in introspection. She appears diminutive and overpowered by the emptiness around her.

Maria Callas, coloratura soprano, New York, February 10, 1970

And here is Maria Callas. The look on her face does not feel like it comes from acting but rather from hurt and candor.

Don't get me wrong, I think these are wonderful images, some of my favorite actually, but I just can't help but wonder what the subject's reaction was to them. Here is a person about to be photographed by a photographer who makes utterly beautiful images working with the most beautiful models of the time and he makes you look sad and pitiful.  I can't imagine Monroe being happy with her image depicting her like that during the height of her fame, nor the Duchess of Windsor content with her depiction showing all the wrinkles of time and tears written across her face.

Avedon is definitely not the only photographer to resort to 'tricks' to get the portrait they want, and you have to do what you have to do to get the image you want to get.  Many portrait photographers use 'tricks' to get their subjects to relax or at least put down their guard. Some even resort to not even putting film in the camera during the first 'rolls' of shooting. These first 'rolls' of shooting exhausts the subject and allows the best images to be created during the final rolls when the subject has lost their self-consciousness.

But it was this 'rawness' which created most of the critique directed at what is perhaps his magnus opus 'In the American West.' For this ambitious project, Avedon photographed thousands of images using several assistants, an 8X10 large format camera with his signature white backdrop and had them printed larger-than-life for exhibition purposes.

Hansel Nicholas Burum, coal miner, Somerset, Colorado, December 17, 1979

He abandoned photographing celebrities and models and instead concentrated on everyday working class people as his subject and the critique comes because of this.

Juan Patricio Lobato, Carney, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23. 1980

Here is a well-established fashion photographer, who has worked with some of the most famous people of the time, comes in with a crew, lighting and an 8X10 camera (which can be very intimidating) and sets up a background which strips a person of their surroundings (and therefore some identity) to photograph people who are not in the habit of being photographed at this level. 

Needless to say, the structure of power is all in the hands of the photographer and the process can, and has been, seen as exploitative. The blank background (and large scale) encourages the viewer to scrutinize the subject being depicted.

Some would argue that this is also how Avedon depicted celebrities, but we must consider for a moment how one views the images of the rich and famous being depicted as vulnerable, it somehow humanizes their stature, as opposed to viewing someone of lesser means depicted in the same manner, it instead opens them up to pity.

Petra Alvarado, on her birthday, factory worker, El Paso, Texas, April 22, 1982

Dovima with elephants by Avedon

And speaking about images I have a hard time deciding which to like best (see Little Joe both clothed and nude in previous entry), there are two images in existence of Dovima with Elephants, both shot by Richard Avedon during the same photo shoot.

Dovima was a 1950's 'supermodel' who pre-dated the term by about 10 years. She was perhaps a muse for Avedon and for many other photographers considering she is the model to some of the best fashion photography of the time.  Avedon made his mark as a fashion photographer by incorporating movement in the genre when the standard was to shoot stiff and posed models.

You can only imagine that in order for the images below to exist as they do, the model had to be attune and quick to the movements of the otherwise uncontrollable props (in this case, the elephants).

Dovima with elephants, evening dress by Dior, August 1955, by Richard Avedon

In this great image above, Dovima's arched arm mimics the curved trunks of the elephants beside her. Her white and black Dior dress looking impeccable and contrasting with the otherwise general grayness of her surroundings.

And in the bottom one, she appears to be leading a band of elephants (her perfectly placed left foot front and center) while taming their charge with her delicately positioned hands.

Dovima with elephants, evening dress by Dior, August 1955, by Richard Avedon

Again not a simple feat for either model nor photographer considering how quick they both had to be to capture the right moment.

And to add difficulty to the mix, Avedon is working with a large format camera which slows down the shooting process, there is no quick and rapid succession of shooting as with smaller format cameras using roll film.

We can tell what format Avedon is using here because of the black border around the images. The black borders come into play when the unexposed edges of the film are included in the printing and although this can be done with any format, the markings of these borders (notice it doesn't go all the way around the image) is evidence of the film holder edges one uses when shooting sheet film in large format photography.

The only visible difference in the achievement of these images is that because of the borders, we also know the bottom images is full-frame while the top image has been cropped from the top (the proportion is also not exactly in sync with the sheet film's size).

Yet both remain a testament to Avedon's talent (and Dovima's), I am sure I'm not the only one who can't choose which one is better between the two, it is no wonder they are both considered the iconic images that they are.

Portraits by Avedon

Another prized-possession of mine is this 'Portraits' portfolio by Richard Avedon.

I had become aware of Avedon's fashion photography work when I would browse through magazines. Avedon was still doing the covers for Vogue and was recognized for his early fashion work from the 50s in many photography books.

But one of the two things that make this book so special to me is how I found it. It was in the bottom shelf of a sales book rack in the Fort Lauderdale Main Public Library and cost $2! Yes, just TWO BUCKS!! It was in the mid-80s and I would normally have no money to buy anything, but this book was extremely affordable on my budget.

And the second reason (as if a great bargain wasn't enough) is that the book contains one of  his multi-panel spreads of Andy Warhol with some of his factory members.

And more specifically with 'Little Joe' rendered both clothed and in the nude, perpetually making me unable to decide which one I think he looks better in. The image of him in the left panel, hair pulled back and posed in classical greek sculptural glory...or dressed in all black and boots, hair loose, looking like the urban bohemian his demeanor exudes.
(needless to say, I've had a very long fascination with Joe Dellasandro's image.)

The images from the book were part of an exhibition and it was perhaps one of the first instances photographic images were printed this large in the pre-digital age.

I believe these images are from 2012 exhibition but Avedon (or at least his assistants) were printing  these gelatin-silver photographs in a traditional b&w wet darkroom in the mid-70s.

Avedon probably did this scale for several reasons and one of them was probably to create attention and overcompensate for photography's diminutive status in the art world during the 70s.

Just like Warhol, Avedon was very successful in the 'commercial' field at a time when it was rigidly separated from the world of 'fine art'.  He, like Warhol, wanted his work to be taken seriously, so he set out to make his portrait work. He received validation by being one of the first photographers ever given a solo show in a major museum outside photography-designated galleries.

Perhaps as a way to elevate these photographs in the context of 'fine art' he pushed their limits by executing them to the largest size possible at the time. There is no denying these prints deserve a certain kind of respectability and awe merely because of size and execution. But he also emphasized the image's minimalist language by creating a sense of empty space with use of scale.