Richard Avedon

[Richard Johnson]

To me, there is no doubt that he was a great photographer. But when you look at some of his prints, especially some of his portraits, you see that his greatness was not in setting up a studio shot. Many of the portraits are just straight on shots of somebody. You can't even tell the lighting pattern.

I think where a lot of his genius lied was in the characters he found to photograph. That is what makes them interesting. Proving once again that great photographs are great because of the thing (or person) photographed.

In one of his portrait books Avedon writes that he consciously tried to avoid fancy or beautiful lighting. He didn't want compliments based on his lighting.

[Drew Wiley]

Avedon's portraits in the West have about as much appeal to me as looking at dead beetles insect-pinned to a white-lined box. He should have stayed in Manhattan
with his fashionista groupies.

[bob carnie]

Drew.. rocks and trees get pretty boring ..

Avedon's portraits in the West have about as much appeal to me as looking at dead beetles insect-pinned to a white-lined box. He should have stayed in Manhattan
with his fashionista groupies.

[Greg Y]

With you Bob ;-). I would have liked to have seen the show in Fort Worth. A couple of my favorite photographers are Vittorio Sella, Bradford Washburn (for his large format BW aerials) & Jay Dusard. I appreciated Laura Wilson's book. I thought it was very well done.

[DrTang]

...have about as much appeal to me as looking at dead beetles insect-pinned to a white-lined box.

Oh man.. I LOVE the pinned insect, scientific photograph thing

I've been trying to get just that

a portrait as an alien might photograph us for study

take the lighting and photographer right out of it (I mean..of course not, but take all standard portrait conceits out of it anyway)

[Drew Wiley]

It's all relative, Bob, and demographically fascinating as well. Back when I was a teenager and someone my age finally moved into the neighborhood, that is, less than ten miles away, we'd be out crawling over rocks and thru caves, huntin' and fishing n'.... having the time of our lives. His cousins would come visiting from the city and just sit in the living room all weekend watching TV (one of the few homes that had TV), bored to death. But when we country mice were forced to visit the city, we were bored to death. So ya gotta understand, from one point of view, people who don't understand "rocks n' trees" really aren't cultured. It works both way. And for me personally, as a photographer, Avedon is about as boring and predictable as it gets. I probably have even more contempt for those who simply prostitute nature (aka "rocks n trees") into predictable postcardy market stereotypes, esp nowadays in the age of instant Fauxtoshop honey and jam all over sugar cubes colorization. Those folks should stick to selling ceramic chipmunks to the tourists. But otherwise the options are infinite. A rock can have every bit as much gestalt to it as a portrait. No two are the same. It can be just as much a mirror for the subconscious as any other subject. But you'd be sadly mistaken if you think that is all we allegedly less civilized types make prints of. And if being cultured equates to conforming to what NYC considers artistically
relevant, well then, I prefer to remain a barbarian.

[dsphotog]

It's all relative, Bob, and demographically fascinating as well. Back when I was a teenager and someone my age finally moved into the neighborhood, that is, less than ten miles away, we'd be out crawling over rocks and thru caves, huntin' and fishing n'.... having the time of our lives. His cousins would come visiting from the city and just sit in the living room all weekend watching TV (one of the few homes that had TV), bored to death. But when we country mice were forced to visit the city, we were bored to death. So ya gotta understand, from one point of view, people who don't understand "rocks n' trees" really aren't cultured. It works both way. And for me personally, as a photographer, Avedon is about as boring and predictable as it gets. I probably have even more contempt for those who simply prostitute nature (aka "rocks n trees") into predictable postcardy market stereotypes, esp nowadays in the age of instant Fauxtoshop honey and jam all over sugar cubes colorization. Those folks should stick to selling ceramic chipmunks to the tourists. But otherwise the options are infinite. A rock can have every bit as much gestalt to it as a portrait. No two are the same. It can be just as much a mirror for the subconscious as any other subject. But you'd be sadly mistaken if you think that is all we allegedly less civilized types make prints of. And if being cultured equates to conforming to what NYC considers artistically
relevant, well then, I prefer to remain a barbarian.

Well said!

[Alan Gales]

I don't know if this is true or not but from what I heard Avedon used a Sinar in the studio and preferred a Deardorff out in the field purely for aesthetic reasons. He felt the Deardorff was prettier for the public to see.

It makes sense, especially if he was the showman that Drew and others say he was.

Unlike Drew though, I enjoy Avedon's work. To each their own.

[Tim Meisburger]

I was in line going through the church to have my 5X7 film holders blessed and leave a little offering. I didn't get picked for a portrait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnvwuIVl_6I

So that's what I'm doing wrong! Next time I'm at San Xavier I'm having all my holders blessed. I wonder if using Holy Water to mix my D23 would improve my prints?

[Drew Wiley]

Alan - nobody can question his cleverness with his subjects. And many of us would agree just from sheer experience that people can be very cooperative in front of what is conspicuously a view camera, esp a vintage-looking one. Dorffs might not have been that uncommon back then, but still, it wasn't something the average rural person encountered. So back to my insect collection analogy - who was the real specimen - the person in the pose being "collected", or the strange specimenbehind the strange wooden box, conspicuously out of his own cultural element? Avedon knew exactly what he was doing. I just don't personally care for the result. But I do in fact pretty much despise that whole hollow advertising and fashion culture he came from, which he gamed so well. Otherwise, I'm just plain
sick of the stuck record of seeing that stuff on display over and over and over and over ....