More Avedon

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"Avedon took Munkacsi’s use of motion and literally ran with it…[His models] dance, leap or lope past, often completely obscured by flowing garments. Movement could also be disintegration: in a 1994 photograph, Stephanie Seymour is shown crumpling like a marionette whose strings have been cut."

Roberta Smith reviews Avedon Fashion 1944–2000 in today's paper:

Avedon’s fashion photographs from the late 1940s to the early ’60s are everything you want great art to be: exhilarating, startlingly new and rich enough with life and form to sustain repeated viewings. Their beauty is joy incarnate and contagious. The best of them are as perfect on their own terms as the best work of Jackson Pollock or Jasper Johns from that era, and as profoundly representative of it.

As with these painters Avedon’s work represents an important turning point and a new kind of self-consciousness of his medium. He makes us aware of its process on different levels, while also questioning its values and deflating its pretensions. His images have a new tautness; you see them as energy-producing wholes in which every detail and bit of surface is articulated. Like Abstract Expressionist painting, they show us an art form learning from and then moving beyond European conventions.

Read the rest of Roberta Smith's review here.

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The New Yorker also has a slideshow online featuring 15 images from the show (Avedon was a staff photographer there in the last years of his life).

Dovima with Sacha, cloche and suit by Balenciaga, Café des Deux Magots, Paris, August 1955. Photography Richard Avedon. Cathy Horyn, paraphrasing part of a 1958 New Yorker article on Avedon and his frequent subject: "Dovima was a devout Catholic and a homebody who traveled on shoots with her husband and a suitcase full of comic books. She was Dorothy Horan. Dovima was a blend of “Do” for Dorothy, “vi” for victory, and “ma” for her ma."

Doe Avedon

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Photograph by Richard Avedon at the Gare du Nord, Paris, August 1947. Doe Avedon, model and actress, and the inspiration – along with Richard Avedon, her first husband – for the movie Funny Face, died last week at the age of 86.

Funny Face trailer

In 1949 Doe divorced Richard Avedon to marry Dan Matthews, an actor. “I would have crawled to the Bronx on my knees to bring Doe back,” Mr. Avedon said in 1993.

Book photo above from the excellent must-have Avedon Fashion 1944–2000.

Image of the Day

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Doe Avedon at the Gare du Nord, Paris, August 1947.

Photography by Richard Avedon, from the book Avedon Fashion 1944–2000, which accompanied the recent Avedon exhibition at the International Center of Photography in New York. Emily gave it to me for my birthday and it made me really happy – it's a big, beautifully designed book featuring essays by ICP curator Carol Squiers, Vince Aletti, and photography historian Philippe Garner, and 245 of Avedon's most iconic fashion photographs.

I posted about the ICP exhibition here and here, and Emily and I had a chance to see it last time we were in New York, right before it closed. Actually, we scheduled our trip with that in mind – we were really looking forward to seeing it, and I'm glad to say that the show did not disappoint in the least.

Looking at photography online and in books is great, no doubt, but seeing printed work in person can be a very moving experience. Visiting ICP is almost always first on my list of things to do with free time in New York.

The current show is Dress Codes, ICP's third triennial of contemporary photography and video, running through January 17, 2010. Visit icp.org for more info.

You Don't Have to Smile

An old friend generously brought me to Benaroya Hall Wednesday night to see Annie Leibovitz speak and show slides from her new book, At Work. I am a big fan of her early photography for Rolling Stone, a little less so of her later 1980s work, and not really at all of her current work for Vanity Fair, Amex, and Disney, among others – but there is no disputing it, the woman is a national treasure. There is just no one else out there these days, now that Avedon is gone, who has spanned eras and documented the collective public-life consciousness of the country the way Annie Leibovitz has.

At one point during the talk, she made an interesting comment about her classic photo of Arnold Schwarzenegger – the one where he's wearing tight white pants, sitting on a white horse (if you don't know it, go get that book). She said she didn't really like it at first, because she was concerned that form would define the meaning of the photo. For the rest of the night, I thought about that. I guessed she meant that she didn't want the shapes or composition in a photograph to overshadow the personality of the subject. She clarified during the Q&A period that she has a tendency to fall back on "designing" as she photographs, which she feels is not enough. As a graphic designer I found that really interesting, because for me it definitely is enough – but I understood what she meant, that for her it had to be about the person, which is much more difficult to capture than composition, whether found or constructed.

In trying to figure out what bothers me about her recent work, Leibovitz's statement about wanting form to not define the meaning of a photo was instructive. Approaching similar goals (simply put: portraiture) Avedon presents an interesting contrast, because where Leibovitz has continued to add and add, he chose to subtract and simplify, to remove any constructed meaning and focus on the subject alone. Avedon's design was no design, no form. In Leibovitz's recent work, I sometimes feel that the form – the props, the styling, the mega-staging – does the opposite of what she says she wants; it does dictate the meaning. The form that is "an Annie Leibovitz photo" often clouds out or seems to change the personalities.

When I worked for Martha Stewart in far west Chelsea, I used to walk by Annie Leibovitz's studio everyday – an impressively remodeled old brick garage on 26th Street – and wonder who was in there and what elaborate productions were taking place. The wildly complex styling and sets are impressive, to be sure. I just don't get into the result, really, for the same reason I love her work from the '70s and early '80s so much – I prefer more simplistic and spontaneous photography, and I feel like it's a more honest portrayal of whatever or whoever is being photographed.

But, man, what a career. It was really cool to hear her discuss that early stuff, her relationship with Susan Sontag, their daughter, and the way her life and work has developed over the years. At the end of the night, Leibovitz was asked if she would be photographing Obama's inauguration, and she said that yes, she would be, but that she thought she might like to be in the back, taking in the whole spectacle of the people and the event. I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures.

Photograph of Annie Leibovitz, 1973, by Henry Diltz

Listen to an interview with Annie Leibovitz from KUOW's Weekday with Steve Scher at kuow.org

Order Annie Leibovitz's new book from Powell's.

Visionary Visuals

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Donyale Luna (the first black model ever to appear on the cover of British Vogue) in Paco Rabanne, 1966. Photography Richard Avedon

In an extended multimedia slideshow on the New York Times website, co-curators Vince Aletti and Carol Squires speak about Avedon Fashion 1944–2000, which opens tomorrow at the International Center of Photography, and runs through September 6th. Click here to listen.

Also a must: highly esteemed fashion writer Cathy Horyn reviews the show in today's paper.

Simply put, Richard Avedon was a national treasure – someone who explored a multitude of directions in photography, and through his work made the world a better place to be on so many levels. I am dying to see the show as soon as I can make the trip.

Darkness and Light

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Photographer Richard Avedon in front of a portrait from his In the American West series

I recently came across a PBS American Masters documentary on Richard Avedon, posted in its entirety on YouTube:


There is often speculation that on some level all of Avedon's photos are self-portraits – that he was always trying to get to some truth about himself by photographing other people. I think because of that, there is something about his work, taken as a whole, that to me represents life so fully – the good and the bad, the ugliness and the promise of beauty, the reality and the aspiration – the mix of it all. It kind of kills me to think about it, his work means so much to me.

This documentary is a good survey – part 1 of 9 is above [or if you can't see it, click here to watch] and parts 2–9 are after the jump:

Vintage Vanguard

Paris Vogue is currently buying back issues from whoever's selling, replenishing the archives in preparation for its 90th anniversary. Looking at all the covers is a pretty great history of photography in an of itself. Photography critic Vince Aletti: “Fashion photography is what made me start collecting Vogue. I was interested in Penn and Avedon, so I started collecting their work in a way I could afford.” Read more here.

Above, Paris Vogue covers by Richard Avedon, Philippe Halsman, Franco Rubartelli, Henry Clarke, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, Mario Sorrenti, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, David Sims, Mario Testino, Sam Haskins, Arthur Elgort, Satoshi Saikusa, Andy Warhol, Steven Klein and others.

Image of the Day

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Kyle Johnson was shooting in our studio this morning and told me about this Richard Avedon photo, which I don't think I've ever seen:

Richard Avedon: Martin Luther King, Jr. with his father and son, Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 1963

Today's Fresh Air features a fascinating interview with Clarence B. Jones, who wrote what came to be known as King's "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, in the same year the photo above was taken. Click here to listen.

Running, Jumping, Standing Still

Martin Munkacsi Peignoir in a light breeze, 1936

One of several shows opening January 16th at the International Center of Photography draws from a newly discovered cache of Hungarian photographer Martin Munkacsi's negatives. There was another exhibition of his work at ICP a few years ago and it was truly stunning. Munkacsi (my Hungarian friend tells me it's pronounced kind of like "Moon-Kashi") was one of the most famous photographers in the world in his day, influencing greats such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Richard Avedon with his unique take on photo-journalism – and, later, on fashion photography through his work with Carmel Snow at Harper's Bazaar.

Left, Martin Munkacsi, 1933 / Right, Richard Avedon, 1969

Here are some of my favorite Munkacsi images:

Martin Munkacsi, Berlin vs. Budapest, ca. 1928

Martin Munkacsi, Greta Garbo on vacation, ca. 1932

Martin Munkacsi, Lucile Brokaw on the Long Island Beach, 1933

Munkacsi's Lost Archive runs January 16–May 3 at ICP. If you can't make it or want more images/info, Steidl released a great book on Munkacsi's life and work in 2006:


All images © Joan Munkacsi

Man on the Edge

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Yesterday's Loner, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 12-film Steve McQueen festival, opens today at the Walter Reade Theater. Even when we lived in New York, Lincoln Center seemed as far away from Brooklyn as it does now from Seattle, but many of the films in the festival are on DVD, and the list provides a good study guide for packing the queue with McQueen classics:

-Bullitt
-The Cincinnati Kid
-An Enemy of the People
-The Getaway
-The Great Escape
-Love with the Proper Stranger
-The Magnificent Seven
-Nevada Smith -Papillon
-The Sand Pebbles
-The Thomas Crown Affair
-The Towering Inferno

Of course the big screen is always better though, and if you're at the actual festival (as opposed to the homemade one in your living room), an added bonus is that a number of guests will be on hand to introduce the films: Candice Bergen for The Sand Pebbles, David Forster for The Getaway, Norman Jewison for both The Cincinnati Kid and The Thomas Crown Affair, Robert Vaughn for The Magnificent Seven, and more. Click here for more info.

While we're at it, some stills and other photos to round it out:

McQueen at the California Junior Boys Republic reformatory in Chino Hills, 1963. He credited the school with turning his life around when he was a juvenile petty thief, and would often return to visit and hang out with the kids.

McQueen's first wife, Neile Adams, was born in Manila and spent 18 months during the war imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines.

McQueen with his cat, "Kitty Kat"

McQueen with Natalie Wood

With Peggy Moffatt in front of McQueen's 1963 Ferrari GT Berlinetta Lusso. Photo by William Claxton

Steve McQueen and Tuesday Weld

McQueen with Ann Margret and Tuesday Weld

McQueen with Faye Dunaway and Norman Jewison on the set of The Thomas Crown Affair

Steve McQueen and Jacqueline Bisset in Bullitt

McQueen on set with Ali McGraw (who would become his second wife) and Sam Peckinpah

McQueen on the covers of Harper's Bazaar (photo by Richard Avedon) and Sports Illustrated

Click here for more info on the festival .
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Lingerie & Cracks

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Lillian Bassman: photo for a Warner's lingerie advertisement, 1951

Photographer Lillian Bassman (b.1917), who cut her teeth shooting for the legendary Harper's Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch, and herself directed the short-lived but highly revered Junior Bazaar, is getting some much-overdue attention lately.

Lillian Bassman Park Avenue 84th to 90th, Frame #19, 1975

It's not like Bassman is unknown, but she tends to be a bit overlooked because of the fact that, as active as she was from the '40s through the early '60s, she quite decisively removed herself from the world of fashion photography in the early '70s, destroying many of her negatives and literally throwing the rest in a trash bag, where they sat until now.

Lillian Bassman More Fashion Mileage Per Dress
(model Barbara Vaughn, NYC, 1956)

Some of that lost work is currently on view at KMR Arts in Washington Depot, CT, and a new book of Bassman's photography is due later this year.

Lillian Bassman: model Barbara Miller in a photograph
for Harper's Bazaar, Paris 1949

Lillian Bassman: photograph from Junior Bazaar, June 1950

Part of her resurgence has to be due to the popularity of Mad Men/Kennedy-era style; her work feels very current. As Ginia Bellafonte wrote in The New York Times:

The clothes have a structured beauty; the gloves are mandatory; the necks are long. Elegant men with cigarettes between their fingers occasionally enter the frame, encountering women who appear utterly indifferent to their attention. The perversions of inequality are absent; what appears instead is the glamour of a protracted cultural moment in which women were free from any expectation of sexual pursuit. The power of Ms. Bassman’s photographs is the power of a woman who is never moved to make a call....conveying a world in which women seemed to linger in the pleasures of their own sensuality.

Lillian Bassman: model Evelyn Tripp in an outtake from a shoot
for Harper's Bazaar, 1948

Hers was a quieter, more private sexiness, seen most dramatically in her work for lingerie advertising. Again (yet again) from the Times:

In the period dominated by Avedon and Irving Penn, Ms. Bassman was one of the few female photographers in the fashion business, and her work had a distinctly different cast from the outset, one less distancing. In most of the lingerie pictures, for example, the faces are averted or obscured, the result of the Ford agency’s insistence that its models not be identifiable in such provocative advertising. The effect of this constraint is not cold anonymity but an unusual intimacy that leaves the images feeling almost entirely divorced from commodity, as if they were the visual entries in the personal journals of the women photographed.

Lillian Bassman: photo for a Warner's lingerie advertisement, 1951

In short, Bassman tired of the increasing overtness of sexuality in the '60s, and by the early '70s, decided she was done shooting people. A series of photos of cracks in the sidewalk followed; the Connecticut show features those, juxtaposed with her fashion photography.

Lillian Bassman, age 92. Photo Damon Winter/NYT.

Now 92, she has learned Photoshop and is revisiting her older work; in addition to the show in Connecticut and the forthcoming book Lillian Bassman: Women (Abrams), a retrospective in Hamburg, Germany, this fall will feature her work and that of her husband, Paul Himmel, a photographer (and later a social worker) who died earlier this year.

Lillian Bassman: Lingerie & Cracks runs through September 5th at KMR Arts in Washington Depot, CT; I highly recommend reading Ginia Bellafante's entire feature at nytimes.com.

Elizabeth Taylor

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Elizabeth Taylor, 1964, photographed by Richard Avedon

Image of the Day

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Richard Avedon: Christmas Boy, 1965
(via Steven Kasher Gallery/1stDibs)

Ego Trïp

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Covers of the Paris-based fashion magazine Egoïste – published intermittently since 1977 by founder and editor Nicole Wisniak.

Back issues, with photography by Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon, Paolo Roversi, to name a few, go for hundreds on eBay.

The first issue since 2007 is due out next month and I'm sure it will go quickly – I will definitely be on the hunt.

Read more about Egoïste in a recent article at nytimes.com.

Glossy Is As Glossy Does

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Petronio Associates reel for models.com

This week Wayne at MDX posted a good interview with Ezra Petronio, creative director and co-founder – with his wife Suzanne Koller – of Petronio Associates and Self Service magazine. Here's the introduction:

The idea of fashion today is the idea of the still image as seen in glossy magazine pages and big city billboards and posters. The fashion photographers of our moment, in trying to continue the tradition of the modern masters of the trade (Penn, Avedon and Newton ) have been sustaining this art of creating a decisive fashion moment, around the movement of a model in a photo-shoot, where ideas of hair, make-up, styling, lighting have all aligned to create the single frame ideal of fashion. But that was the 20th century. As it becomes clear that the 21st century is digitally driven, how will an entire culture of editors, photographers and advertisers adapt to an audience that grew up with the amplified imagery of music videos and video-games who now view all media through a computer screen?

Hilary Rhoda and Irina Lazareanu photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Self Service issue n°24. Styling by Suzanne Koller.

Petronio:

While there are certain restrictions and adaptations that need to be made with digital design, they are not all that different than the restrictions that exist within traditional formats. Each type media provides an opportunity. It’s important to work with the media and not against it. Each format is best at displaying certain types of content and should be used as such – an iPad is not a TV, a web page is not a book or magazine. Something beautiful can be created for any media without compromise.
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The tactile quality of objects will become more and more objects of luxury, possibly enhancing their value and quality of the content we put on them. As things become more internet-oriented a printed edition of Self Service magazine will become something more collectible and precious, as people collect objects and value them.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Frida Gustavsson answers the Proustian questionnaire for the Self Service blog