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Avedon: Photographs,1947-1977
Over-size hardback book with clear dust jacket titled Photographs 1947-1977. With an essay by Harold Brodkey.
- GenresPhotographyArtNonfiction
250 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Richard Avedon
153 books46 followersPeople note fashion photography and stark portraits of Richard Avedon, an American.
Richard Avedon captured ideals of celebrity and beauty in the 20th and early 21st centuries to helped to establish a contemporary art form. Avedon developed a distinct, iconic style. While his contemporaries focused on single moments or composed formal images, his lighting and minimalist white backdrops drew the viewer to the intimate, emotive power of the expression of the subject.
Richard Avedon studied philosophy at Columbia University, New York, and served in the department of the merchant marines of the United States before studying with Alexey Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research.
From 1945, he worked and revolutionized the craft even as he honed his aesthetic to 1965. He worked in magazines from Harper's Bazaar and Vogue to Life and Look. Later, he moved into journalism and the art world. His subjects included pop stars, models, musicians, writers, artists, workers, political activists, soldiers, victims of Vietnam War, politicians, and his family.
Curator Paul Roth observes: “In an Avedon portrait, the face maps an intersection: It is a place where the world outside the photograph meets the world inside the mind.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York presented solo exhibitions in 1978 and 2002. The Whitney Museum of Art in New York in 1994 mounted major retrospective. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek, Denmark, mounted his works in 2007, and the exhibit traveled to Milan, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, and San Francisco through 2009.
Richard Avedon captured ideals of celebrity and beauty in the 20th and early 21st centuries to helped to establish a contemporary art form. Avedon developed a distinct, iconic style. While his contemporaries focused on single moments or composed formal images, his lighting and minimalist white backdrops drew the viewer to the intimate, emotive power of the expression of the subject.
Richard Avedon studied philosophy at Columbia University, New York, and served in the department of the merchant marines of the United States before studying with Alexey Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research.
From 1945, he worked and revolutionized the craft even as he honed his aesthetic to 1965. He worked in magazines from Harper's Bazaar and Vogue to Life and Look. Later, he moved into journalism and the art world. His subjects included pop stars, models, musicians, writers, artists, workers, political activists, soldiers, victims of Vietnam War, politicians, and his family.
Curator Paul Roth observes: “In an Avedon portrait, the face maps an intersection: It is a place where the world outside the photograph meets the world inside the mind.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York presented solo exhibitions in 1978 and 2002. The Whitney Museum of Art in New York in 1994 mounted major retrospective. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek, Denmark, mounted his works in 2007, and the exhibit traveled to Milan, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, and San Francisco through 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 7, 2013
Kathy Ross Clenet gave her copy because I looked at it every time I came over to the state street house
August 28, 2023
While reading the biography of Richard Avedon, What Becomes a Legend Most, I recalled owning this book on my bookshelf unread. When I attended college and shortly thereafter, I was on a mission to collect images by famous photographers to use as inspiration for my own creativity. That is when I acquired this book. So it has sat, until the biography motivated me to pull it and view it.
In the biography, Avedon spoke that he did not want to be remembered for his fashion photography. He ordered much of his work destroyed, so it wasn't used in his remembrance postmortem. What is in this book? 80% is fashion photography. There are several images from his personal portraiture work, shot with the Avedon style white background and 8x10 camera, but the majority is work he shot for Vogue & Harper's Bazaar.
The preface is written by short story/essay writer Harold Brodkey. It is difficult to comprehend what Brodkey is trying to convey as it is written extremely abstractly. If I can't understand it, the average reader won't either. The preface is not about Avedon or his work. It is some strange short story about a fictitious photographer. Then he goes on to talk about time, fashion as a verb, and as a noun and continues ad nauseum telling us little about the photographer or the photographs. It is the only writing in the book aside from the index in the back of the book identifying the who, where and when the photograph was taken and another entry for designer credit of the clothing or hair style.
Many of Avedon's iconic, recognizable images are missing from this book. Because of that and the high percentage of fashion photography, plus the lousy intro by Brodkey, I am giving it a generous 4 stars. There are other books with Avedon's images available and perhaps they are a better collectors choice for me.
In the biography, Avedon spoke that he did not want to be remembered for his fashion photography. He ordered much of his work destroyed, so it wasn't used in his remembrance postmortem. What is in this book? 80% is fashion photography. There are several images from his personal portraiture work, shot with the Avedon style white background and 8x10 camera, but the majority is work he shot for Vogue & Harper's Bazaar.
The preface is written by short story/essay writer Harold Brodkey. It is difficult to comprehend what Brodkey is trying to convey as it is written extremely abstractly. If I can't understand it, the average reader won't either. The preface is not about Avedon or his work. It is some strange short story about a fictitious photographer. Then he goes on to talk about time, fashion as a verb, and as a noun and continues ad nauseum telling us little about the photographer or the photographs. It is the only writing in the book aside from the index in the back of the book identifying the who, where and when the photograph was taken and another entry for designer credit of the clothing or hair style.
Many of Avedon's iconic, recognizable images are missing from this book. Because of that and the high percentage of fashion photography, plus the lousy intro by Brodkey, I am giving it a generous 4 stars. There are other books with Avedon's images available and perhaps they are a better collectors choice for me.
September 15, 2025
4 stars; been wading into the world of photography of late and eagerly brushing up on the classics; Avedon is a very recent discovery and I was struck by his style; loved it; a lot of his work is freely available online at the internet archive, go check them out!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews