Photo Rob McKeever/Courtesy Gagosian; Art: ©The Richard Avedon Foundation
The images of Richard Avedon, 100 years on, are still remarkably fresh. Whether it’s his fashion photography for Harper’s Bazaar in the 1940s and ‘50s or his Civil Rights–era images or even his later work for the New Yorker under, these pictures feel as though they could have been made last year. His impact on image-making has been indelible. Just flip through the pages of almost any glossy magazine—Avedon is in there somewhere.
To mark the master’s centennial, Gagosian has mounted a grand exhibition of Avedon’s work that spans the entirety of his career. It’s not, however, a retrospective. What sets this show apart from most is that the photographs on view were selected by a group of over 150 illustrious cultural figures, all of whom have a personal relationship with Avedon’s work.
They include Hillary Clinton, Elton John, Naomi Campbell, Kim Kardashian, Brooke Shields, Emma Watson, Chloë Sevigny, Sofia Coppola, Ava DuVernay, Tom Ford, Miuccia Prada, François Pinault, Diana Widmaier-Ruiz-Picasso, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, Deborah Willis, Hilton Als, Taryn Simon, David Adjaye, Sally Mann, Awol Erizku, Roe Ethridge, Jenny Saville, Anna Weyant, and Tyler Mitchell.
The show’s catalogue, which clocks in at 318 pages and is currently sold out, compiles more than 275 images by Avedon. Accompanying the images is a brief text written by the selectors, in which they share why, to them, Avedon’s work continues to live and breathe.
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Sofia Coppola: China Machado, suit by Ben Zuckerman, hair by Kenneth, New York, November 6, 1958
Image Credit: ©The Richard Avedon Foundation/Courtesy Gagosian Avedon was always pushing the boundaries, and in the first half of the 20th century that often meant fighting against established conventions of who deserves to be photographed for a glossy magazine. In 1958, he shot this chic portrait of model China Machado as she ashes a cigarette. At the time Harper’s Bazaar refused to run the image. Avedon said if that was their decision, he’d be happy to leave the magazine and work elsewhere. The image ended up running.
“As a kid seeing Richard Avedon’s images made me dream,” Sofia Coppla writes. “I especially love his studio portraits of elegant women, like this one of China Machado, which is so full or personality and style. She was a remarkable woman and a pioneer of diversity in the upper echelons of fashion.”
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François Pinault: Marilyn Monroe, actor, May 6, 1957
Image Credit: Photo Rob McKeever/Courtesy Gagosian; Art: ©The Richard Avedon Foundation Like Avendon, Marilyn Monroe is both of her time and timeless. This portrait, showing 10 Marilyns layered into one composition, is a technical feat. Made decades before Photoshop could splice these distinct images together in a matter of minutes, each Marilyn began as a single photograph before they were cut out and the paper delicately shaved off, until it becomes a kind of transparent “slide.” The final image gives us more Marilyn than anyone of has the right to see. (Interestingly this multi-Marilyn image is from the same photoshoot that produced the famous “Sad Marilyn” photograph that shows the actress in a moment of introspection.)
“Speaking of Marilyn Monroe, Richard Avedon said, ‘There was no such person as Marilyn Monroe… she was invented, like an author creates a character,’” said mega-collector François Pinault.
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Peter MacGill: William Casby, born in slavery, Algiers, Louisiana, March 24, 1963
Image Credit: Photo Rob McKeever/Courtesy Gagosian; Art: ©The Richard Avedon Foundation In 1963 Avedon was working on Nothing Personal, a book project co-authored with his friend and former high school classmate James Baldwin that took a hard look at the state of America during the tumultuous 1960s. It was during this time that Avedon came to know William Casby, one of the last African Americans who had been born into slavery. A section of the exhibition is dedicated to the legacy of Casby, featuring a powerful, large-scale portrait of the 106-year-old along with portraits of his extended family.
According to dealer and art historian Peter MacGill, “When interviewed by James Dombrowski around the time the picture was made, Mr. Casby, who was born into slavery, expressed concern for his family and the world in which they lived. … When I look at the picture I see the face of humankind—the face of a man not afraid to look at the camera.”
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Phyllis Bond McMillan: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), led by Julian Bond, Atlanta, Georgia, March 23, 1963
Image Credit: ©The Richard Avedon Foundation/Courtesy Gagosian Key figures in the civil rights movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was integral to the fight against segregation and for voting rights for African Americans during the 1960s. Known for their nonviolent, inclusive approach to protest, the SNCC was born out the lunch counter sit-ins. It was also integral to the Freedom Rides, during which white and Black activists rode interstate buses around the still segregated South despite Supreme Court decisions, in Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), that made segregation illegal. The activists were often met with violent police beatings and imprisonment.
“The photograph of my father and members of SNCC not only marks an important place in our history but it’s also a beloved memory from my childhood,” Phyllis Bond McMillian writes. “The photograph of these young people who fought against racial injustice is forever preserved for future generations—a road map—evidence they were here. It also evokes the feeling of immense pride I have for my father’s contributions, his lifelong dedication to issues concerning Civil and Human Rights. It conveys and unbelievable feeling of love, hope, and the possibility of equality for all.”
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Susan Sherrick: Sandra Bennett, twelve-year-old, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23, 1980
Image Credit: ©The Richard Avedon Foundation/Courtesy Gagosian Avedon’s “American West” series is considered by many to be the apex of his career. Among his subjects was a then 12-year-old Sandra Bennett, who is featured on the resulting on book, In the American West. In the early 1980s, Avedon brought his large format camera into the western United States and made beautifully haunting photos of regular Americans who would never have normally been given the glossy treatment. The pictures were printed larger than life, some even over 7 feet tall, giving these sitters an awe-inspiring presence.
“Sandra Bennett is all that is beautiful and awkward in the tomboy that I was and still am,” curator Susan Sherrick writes. “That look in her eyes, of annoyance and having a bad day, I know and love. Bennet is coming into her own when Avedon made her portrait. Her Image is timeless and formidable.”
Sofia Coppola: China Machado, suit by Ben Zuckerman, hair by Kenneth, New York, November 6, 1958
Avedon was always pushing the boundaries, and in the first half of the 20th century that often meant fighting against established conventions of who deserves to be photographed for a glossy magazine. In 1958, he shot this chic portrait of model China Machado as she ashes a cigarette. At the time Harper’s Bazaar refused to run the image. Avedon said if that was their decision, he’d be happy to leave the magazine and work elsewhere. The image ended up running.
“As a kid seeing Richard Avedon’s images made me dream,” Sofia Coppla writes. “I especially love his studio portraits of elegant women, like this one of China Machado, which is so full or personality and style. She was a remarkable woman and a pioneer of diversity in the upper echelons of fashion.”
François Pinault: Marilyn Monroe, actor, May 6, 1957
Like Avendon, Marilyn Monroe is both of her time and timeless. This portrait, showing 10 Marilyns layered into one composition, is a technical feat. Made decades before Photoshop could splice these distinct images together in a matter of minutes, each Marilyn began as a single photograph before they were cut out and the paper delicately shaved off, until it becomes a kind of transparent “slide.” The final image gives us more Marilyn than anyone of has the right to see. (Interestingly this multi-Marilyn image is from the same photoshoot that produced the famous “Sad Marilyn” photograph that shows the actress in a moment of introspection.)
“Speaking of Marilyn Monroe, Richard Avedon said, ‘There was no such person as Marilyn Monroe… she was invented, like an author creates a character,’” said mega-collector François Pinault.
Peter MacGill: William Casby, born in slavery, Algiers, Louisiana, March 24, 1963
In 1963 Avedon was working on Nothing Personal, a book project co-authored with his friend and former high school classmate James Baldwin that took a hard look at the state of America during the tumultuous 1960s. It was during this time that Avedon came to know William Casby, one of the last African Americans who had been born into slavery. A section of the exhibition is dedicated to the legacy of Casby, featuring a powerful, large-scale portrait of the 106-year-old along with portraits of his extended family.
According to dealer and art historian Peter MacGill, “When interviewed by James Dombrowski around the time the picture was made, Mr. Casby, who was born into slavery, expressed concern for his family and the world in which they lived. … When I look at the picture I see the face of humankind—the face of a man not afraid to look at the camera.”
Phyllis Bond McMillan: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), led by Julian Bond, Atlanta, Georgia, March 23, 1963
Key figures in the civil rights movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was integral to the fight against segregation and for voting rights for African Americans during the 1960s. Known for their nonviolent, inclusive approach to protest, the SNCC was born out the lunch counter sit-ins. It was also integral to the Freedom Rides, during which white and Black activists rode interstate buses around the still segregated South despite Supreme Court decisions, in Morgan v. Virginia (1946) and Boynton v. Virginia (1960), that made segregation illegal. The activists were often met with violent police beatings and imprisonment.
“The photograph of my father and members of SNCC not only marks an important place in our history but it’s also a beloved memory from my childhood,” Phyllis Bond McMillian writes. “The photograph of these young people who fought against racial injustice is forever preserved for future generations—a road map—evidence they were here. It also evokes the feeling of immense pride I have for my father’s contributions, his lifelong dedication to issues concerning Civil and Human Rights. It conveys and unbelievable feeling of love, hope, and the possibility of equality for all.”
Susan Sherrick: Sandra Bennett, twelve-year-old, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23, 1980
Avedon’s “American West” series is considered by many to be the apex of his career. Among his subjects was a then 12-year-old Sandra Bennett, who is featured on the resulting on book, In the American West. In the early 1980s, Avedon brought his large format camera into the western United States and made beautifully haunting photos of regular Americans who would never have normally been given the glossy treatment. The pictures were printed larger than life, some even over 7 feet tall, giving these sitters an awe-inspiring presence.
“Sandra Bennett is all that is beautiful and awkward in the tomboy that I was and still am,” curator Susan Sherrick writes. “That look in her eyes, of annoyance and having a bad day, I know and love. Bennet is coming into her own when Avedon made her portrait. Her Image is timeless and formidable.”
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