Richard Avedon: Master of Control
Photograph by Andrea Blanch, 1976; Framed photograph of Richard Avedon by Laura WIson.
Many of Richard Avedon’s most iconic works are currently on view in the exhibit titled "Iconic Avedon: A Centennial Celebration of Richard Avedon," showing at Gagosian in Paris through March 2nd.
BY ARI ADAMS
Born in 1923 to a Jewish family in New York, Avedon’s childhood was one with many ups and downs. His father Jacob Avedon was a strict disciplinarian who owned a successful retail dress company while his mother Anna came from a family of dress manufacturers. His mother encouraged his love of theater, fashion and philosophical ideas and acted as an early artistic inspiration for the photographer. Richard’s sister, Louise, was his earliest model and whose life and beauty had the largest influence on his later photographs. “My mother used to say, ‘Louise with skin like that and with eyes like that you don’t have to open your mouth’, it was devastating, I guess,” Avedon said. Louise suffered with mental health problems for her whole life and spent many years in psychiatric institutions. It was the duality of her beauty and pain alongside Avedon’s efforts to confront and ultimately control his fears surrounding his sister’s mental health issues that would inspire much of his artistic career. “All the models that I was drawn to and the faces that I was drawn to were memories of my sister,” says Avedon.
Richard Avedon, China Machado, suit by Ben Zuckerman, hair by Kenneth, New York, November 6, 1958; © The Richard Avedon Foundation; Courtesy Gagosian
Avedon’s major influence on fashion began during a trip to Paris in 1946 just after the end of World War II. The job was given to him by the editors of Harper’s Bazaar was to capture the first collections of post-war French couture. “There was no sleeping”, says Avedon, “we worked around the clock then went out dancing. After the dancing was over, I would walk all night worrying about the next pictures.” Despite his worry, the images that he produced over the course of the trip altered the fabric of fashion photography. He presented fashion as something that existed outside of society and reality. The models no longer posed inorganically against Grecian pillars but bursted with energy and captured fashion and clothing as they truly are: on the streets and in the world.
By the 1950’s, Avedon began to photograph more and more in the studio setting. In 1955 he created one of his most iconic images, Dovima with Elephants. He presented the American supermodel Dovima clad in high-fashion garments while seemingly in control of two elephants that surround her. This image represents not only Avedon’s early vision for the possibilities of fashion photography but his obsession with control within the photographic process. Despite having captured one of the most recognizable fashion images of all time—and doing so while working with a supermodel and two wild animals—Avedon always saw the image as a failure. “I look at this picture to this day and I don’t know why I didn’t have the sash blowing out to the left to complete the line of the picture. That picture will always be a failure to me because that sash isn’t out there,” said Avedon.
Richard Avedon, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, headed by Julian Bond, Atlanta, Georgia, March 23, 1963; © The Richard Avedon Foundation; Courtesy Gagosian
It was during this time that Avedon began to take iconic photos of sitters who were not flattered by his images but that he felt told a greater truth through their expressions. His image of the witty American poet Dorothy Parker shows her in a state of seemingly painful depression. Similarly, he captured an image of the French fashion designer Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel while angry and in the middle of a tirade. “There are times when it's necessary to trick a sitter into what you want but never for the sake of the trick,” said Avedon. This tactic is perhaps best exemplified in his 1957 image of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor who confront the camera in dismay and appall. Having known the royal couple to put on their regal smiles for the camera, Avedon wished to portray them through a lens that didn’t sugarcoat their reality, he wished to exert his control in this situation as a photographer. Knowing how much the couple loved dogs, especially their pugs, Avedon told them while he was shooting their photograph that his taxi had run over a dog on his way to the shoot and proceeded to capture their reaction. “Both of their faces dropped because they loved dogs,” said Avedon.
Later that decade Avedon became close friends with the Chinese-American supermodel China Machado, whom Avedon declared was “probably the most beautiful woman in the world”. Avedon photographed China in clothing which was normally worn by white women during this time and demanded that the images be printed in Harper’s after they faced backlash from the team. Avedon, whose contract with Harper’s Bazaar was up for renewal at the time, threatened to leave the magazine without renewing his contract and the images were finally published. Machado, who was the highest paid model in Europe at the time, landed her image on the February 1959 cover of Harper’s, becoming the first woman of color to do so in the magazine’s history. It is clear that Avedon’s will and insistence lended into ground-breaking feats in the world of fashion and photography that have held a lasting impact to this day.
Richard Avedon, Outtake from Andy Warhol and members of the Factory: Gerard Malanga, poet; Viva, actress; Paul Morrissey, director; Taylor Mead, actor; Brigid Polk, actress; Joe Dallesandro, actor; and Andy Warhol, artist, New York City October 9, 1969. ©The Richard Avedon Foundation
By the beginning of the 1960’s, Avedon had become disillusioned with Harper’s Bazaar. His mentor Diana Vreeland moved to Vogue in 1962 and in 1965, while guest-editing an issue of Harper’s, Avedon received criticism for collaborating with models of color. He left Harper’s in 1965 after receiving a then-unprecedented one-million dollar contract with Vogue. After joining Vogue, he later became the chief photographer of the magazine and photographed the majority of the magazine’s covers between 1965 and 1988 when Anna Wintour came in and grasped the helm of the magazine as editor-in-chief. Avedon notably shot the sensational photo of Nastassja Kinski for Vogue during this time, depicting the supermodel with a large snake laying on top of her body, its tongue reaching towards her ear.
i have the control in the end but I can't do it alone
Avedon’s personal work related heavily to his personal life whether it be his personal fears surrounding mental health, his contemporaries in the art world, or his political beliefs, and as a result his art was on the forefront of cultural matters in his society and left a lasting historical impact. He famously took photographs at mental institutions to confront his sadness and fear surrounding his sister’s experience with her mental health. He photographed moments from the American Civil Rights movement and published a book called Nothing Personal in 1964 which featured text from his former high school classmate, and world-renowned writer, James Baldwin. He also captured murals of Andy Warhol and members of The Factory in 1969 and more murals of the Chicago Seven that same year. He went on to capture similarly styled murals of members of The Young Lords—a street gang turned human rights organization—and American diplomats who had a heavy hand in the governing of the Vietnam War in 1971.
Richard Avedon, Sandra Bennett, twelve year old, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23, 1980; © The Richard Avedon Foundation; Courtesy Gagosian
After experiencing episodes of serious heart inflammation in 1974, Avedon was inspired to take a turn in a new direction. He was commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas to create the “Western Project”. This would go on to become Avedon’s most iconic body of work, In the American West. Turning the focus of his lens from the rich, famous and clouted to that of the American working class, Avedon set out on a five year expedition of small Western towns to find his subjects. The result was a collection of portraits of coal-miners, ranchers, drifters, prostitutes and other figures living on the fringes of society.
After publishing In the American West in 1985, Avedon would continue to photograph for nearly two more decades. After many years with Vogue, Avedon was let go because of creative differences between him and Anna Wintour, who later, rather notably, publicly stated her regret of letting him go. He then became a staff photographer for The New Yorker in 1992 and shot famous portraits of Christopher Reeve, the actor who famously played Superman, in a wheelchair after a horse riding accident that left him paralyzed. In 2004 Avedon died from complications related to a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of eighty-one while working on the American West series.
As with Avedon’s earlier work, not all of his sitters liked his images of them. Sandra Bennet, who Avedon photographed when she was twelve and whose image landed her on the cover of In the American West when she was eighteen, said that the photograph had a profound effect on her life. “The picture was awful,” said Bennet, “It was your worst hair day and your worst clothes day and everything all in one day. The worst photo of your life that you want to bury and it was on the front of this book. I was mortified.” A senior in high school and the homecoming queen, Bennet felt that the image was coming back to haunt her. When she sat down with Avedon years later, she asked why he felt the need to portray her as so exposed and with little dignity. “You can’t say you weren’t in the picture,” Avedon replied, “you can’t say you weren’t there. You have to accept that you were there but the control is with the photographer. I have the control in the end but I can’t do it alone,” he continued. “In the end, I can tear the pictures up, I can choose the smiling one or the serious one, or I can exaggerate something through the printing. It’s lending yourself to artists,” Avedon said.
Richard Avedon, The Young Lords: Pablo "Yoruba" Guzmán, Minister of Information; Gloria González, Field Marshal; Juan González, Minister of Education; Denise Oliver, Minister of Economic Development, New York, February 26, 1971 ©The Richard Avedon Foundation
Over the course of Avedon’s six-decade career, he proved himself not only to be a master photographer but a master of control. It is true that there are few photographers who have mastered control within the medium of photography to the same degree as Avedon. He did not control just what was happening in his images but also the narrative within the photograph and the conversation surrounding his sitters in the real world. The control that he imbued throughout his career did not have the sole purpose of creating the images that he wanted but of telling the story that he wanted. Through his mastery and control in the realm of photography, Avedon transcended the medium and became a poet.
FIN
Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol and members of The Factory, New York, October 30, 1969; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ©The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon, The Chicago Seven, Chicago, November 5, 1969; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ©The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon, The Mission Council, Saigon, South Vietnam, April 28, 1971; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ©The Richard Avedon Foundation
