Question about Avedon's Portrait work

[Robert Skeoch]

Just looking for some basic photo information about Avedon's in the west portrait work. It seems like outdoor light in the shade with a no-seam background but does any one know the tech info. What lenes he liked, or film choices. Thanks.
-rob

[Carl Weese]

The seamless was usually hung on the side of a big RV that he used to travel for the project. Camera was an 8x10 Deardorff, and I think I read that the lens was a 360mm Symmar. Film was Tri-X. The RV was parked in the correct orientation to create the open shade lighting for each set. Avedon worked standing right next to the lens while an assistant changed film holders at the back of the camera.---Carl

[Ellis Vener]

Most of it is as you have surmised: indirect daylight wit ha white seamless paper background. A very few were shot using electronic flash Eveerythign was shot on 8x10. He used an 8 x 10" Deardorff and most likely a lens in the 12 -14' range (300-360mm). Maybe a Commercial Ektar? I'm pretty sure the film was Tri-X (but remember Tri-X now is not the same as Tri-X then.)

The prints were definitely worked on quite critically in the darkroom when they were enlarged -lots of very precise burning and dodging and maybe some bleaching and toning afterwards. Supposedly to get an absolutely flat white background i nthe print, the negatives were those areas were masked off using either ruby "lith" material or red lipstick applied directly to the negative (no I'm not making that up). He also tended to shoot a lot of film per subject to get just the right combination of gesture and expression that he was looking for.

And that latter detail is really where the power of his portraits come from , not the technical how to details. He knew or at least had a sense of what he was looking for.

[Ellis Vener]

Avedon worked standing right next to the lens while an assistant changed film holders at the back of the camera.---Carl Weese

An another cocked the shutter and took meter readings. Other assistants would go out into crowds and look for people he might like to photograph.

I've always wonder what happened to the photographs of the people who didn't make it into the finished project.

[tim atherton]

http://www.photoeye.com/templates/mShowDetailsbycat.cfm?Catalog=UT115

click on the book tease for starters

then you can find a cheaper copy in stock somehwere at ABE

and also


http://www.photoeye.com/templates/mShowDetailsbycat.cfm?Catalog=ZB176

[domenico Foschi]

Michael, i don't understand why you think is disrespectful.
Avedon being a professional, i am sure paid his subjects, he also provided some of them with prints.
His models i am sure signed release forms, and moreover as he stated more times, portraits of his models were never about them as much as himself.
What really revived interst in me about his work recently , was reading that he was an admirer of the austrian painter Egon Shiele, my personal favourite.
And looking at many of his compositions, i can see the influence Shiele had on him ( you owe it to yourself to see this artist's work if you never have ).
I think he used for his American west a 360 Symmar-s, and he wanted a flat light because as he stated < he didn't want to add any "artificial mood " by creating shadows.

[Armin Seeholzer]

And there is a picture wich shows himself at the side of a Sinar P 8x10 on a cable release!
So I'm a bit in doubt thad he used a Deardorff!
Just my 2 cents!

[Jim Ewins]

If one reads Laura Wilson's book, "Avedon at Work", answers to many of the above quiries are found. Looking at his work methods; placing his subjects in front of a white background and the poses, indicate to me that he had no more respect for his subjects than Weston had for his nudes. I like his rich blacks and sometimes good gradations but looking at his work is not my idea of pleasure.

[Bill_1856]

That is a completely unfounded statement about Weston. If you've read the daybooks, you must know that Weston had great and professional respect for his nude models. The hanky-panky, when it came, came afterwards.

[Gary J. McCutcheon]

Avedon used many cameras. The Deardorff 8x10 was used on this project which was shot on location. The Sinar P was used mostly in the studio.