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Thread: Avedon

  1. #1
    Pieter's Avatar
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    Avedon

    I know there are those in this forum who don't particularly like Richard Avedon's work, but there is an interesting article in today's NY Times, some of which deals with the difference he found shooting 8x10 vs the Rolleiflex he had been using. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/a...gtype=Homepage

  2. #2
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Avedon

    While I subscribe to NYT, I don't read a lot of it

    Thanks for posting this story, it fills

    I was there 1968, almost beside Vivian Maier

    just saw the new movie

    a lot of famous people i am glad, i never got too close...

    if i had used a camera then...i'd be dead
    Tin Can

  3. #3

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    Re: Avedon

    When I was with Rollei of America I made some visits to him when he was having a flare problem his assistant couldn’t solve. Turned out one of the background lights was slightly angled and was creating the flare.

  4. #4
    New Orleans, LA
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    Re: Avedon

    Huge fan of Avedon and will read anything about him. Thanks for posting this.

  5. #5

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    Re: Avedon

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon View Post
    When I was with Rollei of America I made some visits to him when he was having a flare problem his assistant couldn’t solve. Turned out one of the background lights was slightly angled and was creating the flare.
    Wow. An assistant couldn't figure out where flare was coming from?
    I would hope it was a very unusual, hard to trace source of flare, like the sun reflecting off of a car windshield two blocks away, or some such...but background lights?..Walking papers!

  6. #6

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    Re: Avedon

    Quote Originally Posted by Dugan View Post
    Wow. An assistant couldn't figure out where flare was coming from?
    I would hope it was a very unusual, hard to trace source of flare, like the sun reflecting off of a car windshield two blocks away, or some such...but background lights?..Walking papers!
    No, it was very easy. The assistant was shooting withm his Mamyia TLR with them75mm lenses but Avedon used the the Rollei 2.8 f with the 80mm Planar.
    Enough stray light came off the high key background to cause flare with he 75mm Mamiya lens but not enough for the longer Rollei lenses.

  7. #7

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    Re: Avedon

    Quote Originally Posted by Dugan View Post
    Wow. An assistant couldn't figure out where flare was coming from?
    I would hope it was a very unusual, hard to trace source of flare, like the sun reflecting off of a car windshield two blocks away, or some such...but background lights?..Walking papers!
    In the studio, I would re-purpose the front element as a mirror to look for highlights reflecting off of it to determine if there was a flare danger...

    The bright ones were lights...

    Steve K

  8. #8

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    Re: Avedon

    Good article,
    it's interesting to think of someone as top of their game as Avedon (whether we like him or not) still striving for acceptance or to make a break into a new kind of work.

    Something that has struck me a little about the group portrait of the Chicago 7 is the perspective. People have said Avedon didn't use movements on the 8x10, though it looks to me he must have used a high camera position, with the camera at least head height and looking down. Their faces look close to straight on while their feet are pointed as seen from well above. It foreshortens their bodies, which IMO makes them look a little vulnerable. Jerry Rubin (striped shirt) looks sort of like a kid, if a kid had a beard. The Mission Council group photo later in the article is a bit like this but not as extreme.

    The torso-length individual portraits of Jerry, Abbie, Dave Dellinger hung on the wall in the lead photo of this article don't have this effect, they're more confrontationally straight on. In later work like "In the American West," that's the form he uses, the camera is about head height but the portraits are torso length, without this foreshortening.

  9. #9

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    Re: Avedon

    Thank you for posting.

    Avedon was a kind of an obsession to me and it's always good to see some new articles and to speak about him and his amazing work.
    After "Avedon at Work", I started reading "Avedon, Something Personal" by his studio manager; it opens a gate on understanding the way photography was seen in the 70s and 80s in the art world and how Avedon was fundamental on pulling it to stand among every other Art.
    What blows my mind every time is the amount of sheets of film he was used to shot for every single portrait or project. He didn't care a thing about the economic side of shooting in 8x10 (while he was very alert when speaking about his wage).
    Pressing the shutter is the only easy thing

  10. #10
    Tin Can's Avatar
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    Re: Avedon

    October 2020 Vanity Fair has Avedon's early years, with interesting connections

    https://archive.vanityfair.com/issue/20201001
    Tin Can

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