Getting to Know Richard Avedon
Posted by Darlene Bouchard — 13 Aug 2009
I have seen Richard Avedon's photographs many times in print, but to see his work yesterday at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art forever changed my ideas about portraiture.Avedon is famous for his fashion photography and portraits because he masterfully captured subtle emotions from his subjects. In his exhibit he confronts his audience with these raw emotions by presenting the work in larger-than-life prints. His portraits are the best I have ever seen. Viewing them in person taught me not only about portraiture but about the artist as well, since Avedon himself was reflected in all of his images.
The exhibit consisted primarily of his portraits. Many of the people he photographed were those in the public realm. He was fascinated by these people, and it is in these portraits that we can observe Avedon's underlying objective: to break through his subjects' public facade during the photo shoot.
Avedon once said, "In my work I look for something, and what I look for is contradiction, complexity. Things that are contradictory and at the same time connected." A fantastic example of this was included in the exhibit, his iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe. I had always admired it because it captures Marilyn as no one else ever had: when she was when not performing. The public rarely saw this side of her, and to see this face of Marilyn Monroe confronts us with our own ideas about celebrities and what fame can do to a person. Richard Avedon has said, "There was no such person as Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was an invention of hers." Avedon unmasked a fantasy that we all enjoyed believing in, and threw it in our face.
Marilyn Monroe, actor, New York, May 6, 1957
It was also a joy to see Avedon's images from the project, The American West, which he considered to be his best body of work. He traveled the American West for 5 years and photographed hundreds of people that were "invisible" to the public in the 1980's (miners, carnies, farmers, etc). These images revealed the complexity that is present in all his images, and another element as well. Avedon created these images when he was almost 60 years old and when his health was in decline. Many think that he was confronting mortality in this series. I also felt that he may have been thinking about how his fame as an artist had influenced his life and work.
I left the exhibit with a new understanding of Avedon and his perspective of humanity. But more importantly, I learned the difference between a great portrait and revealing portrait. I couldn't help but wonder how Avedon was able to get people to expose so much of themselves to him. He has said, "I have a white background, I have the person I'm interested in and the thing that happens between us." So as a photographer myself, I wanted to know what that "thing" was.
Andy Warhol and Members of The Factory, New York City, October 30, 1969
Making portraits is as much about the photographer as it is about the subject. Richard Avedon knew this. Somehow through his images I felt got to know him intimately, which means that Avedon didn't just capture images, he created them. Avedon may be gone, but luckily we can all get a sense of who he was through his exhibit.
