Richard Avedon
October 25th, 2002
So last night, knocked out by some flu-like symptoms (it’s not still West Nile season, is it?), I’m channel-surfing and I happen upon one of those shows that just makes you feel smarter for watching. Newshour arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown was interviewing the world-famous portrait photographer Richard Avedon.
Avedon is one of those names that you may or may not recognize, but if you see his work you’ll immediately recognize his style in which black and white portraits (more often than not one of a culturally significant individual) are shown against a stark white background.
I won’t bore you with the details of how awed and amazed I was at listening to him speak, how he didn’t talk about the honesty of photography, but rather he spoke of how the camera lies — a photograph represents one facet of a person, not the person as a whole…Anyway, the man’s a genius with the camera. I’m inspired. Next thing on my list of things to do before I die: learn to take portraits.
If you’re interested in Avedon, here are some links to background info, but all the sites are way light on pics, unfortunately. If you live in New York, be sure to check out the Met link. Apparently an excellent exhibition of his is going on right now.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Special Exhibitions
Richard Avedon: Portraits
PBS.org
American Masters: Richard Avedon
Zone Zero Magazine
Richard Avedon’s In the American West