Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Gloria Swanson, Actor, New York, September 4, 1980, gelatin silver print, 50.8 x 40.6 cm. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Gloria Swanson, Actor, New York, September 4, 1980, gelatin silver print, 50.8 x 40.6 cm. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon: Immortal
With close to 100 portraits of everyday citizens and public figures, including Chet Baker, Samuel Beckett, Toni Morrison, Truman Capote, Duke Ellington, Patti Smith, Jean Renoir and many more, Immortal is dedicated to one of the 20th century’s most celebrated photographers, focusing on a fascinating and unexpected dimension of his work: aging.
For nearly half a century, American portraitist and fashion photographer Richard Avedon sought to represent advancing age in the faces of people he photographed: from artists and writers to politicians and performers, to the everyday citizens in his best-known series, In the American West.
These portraits—visual “sermons on bravado,” as he sometimes called them—dramatized the universal experience of aging and testified unflinchingly to the determination with which people confront the relentless advance of mortality. Few artists have addressed this subject as consistently or controversially as did Avedon, who explored aging throughout his career as America’s most influential portrait photographer.
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Marcel Duchamp, Artist, New York, January 31, 1958, gelatin silver print, 25.9 x 20.3 cm. Courtesy of Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona. Richard Avedon Archive, gift of the artist. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
From Avedon’s earliest years at America’s pre-eminent fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar, the standard practice for editorial photographers was to represent public personalities in a way that flattered them by means of favourable poses and angles; bounced or diffused light; special lenses and filters that softened facial features; and post-photography retouching to smooth the skin’s appearance. Avedon, however, routinely and audaciously violated these tenets, highlighting infirmities, wrinkles, crow’s feet, folds of skin, and liver spots—the outward markers of what he once called “the avalanche of age,” falling over the human face and body.
By comparison with predecessors like Edward Steichen and peers such as Irving Penn, Avedon’s portraits were considered scandalous for their emphasis on aging. In reality, far from being hostile to his subjects, Avedon depicted people with heightened empathy for the struggles they weathered in the crucible of life: the battles they survived, the lessons learned over time, and the resilience they needed to endure despite declining health.
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), William Casby, Born into Slavery, Algiers, Louisiana, March 24, 1963, gelatin silver print, 135.3 x 107.9 cm. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon (1923-2004) was born and lived in New York City. His interest in photography began at an early age, and he joined the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) camera club when he was 12 years old. In 1942, Avedon joined the armed forces of World War II, making identity photographs as Photographer’s Mate Second Class in the U.S. Merchant Marine. After two years of service, at the age of 22, Avedon began working as a freelance photographer, primarily for Harper’s Bazaar. Under the tutelage of art director Alexey Brodovitch, he quickly became the legendary magazine’s leading fashion and editorial portrait photographer.
From the beginning of his career, Avedon made formal portraits for publication, not only in Harper’s Bazaar but also in Theatre Arts, Life, Look, and other magazines. He was fascinated by photography’s capacity for suggesting the personality and evoking the life of his subjects. He registered poses, attitudes, hairstyles, clothing and accessories as vital, revelatory elements of an image. He had complete confidence in the two-dimensional nature of photography, the rules of which he bent to his stylistic and narrative purposes. As he wryly said, “My photographs don’t go below the surface. I have great faith in surfaces. A good one is full of clues.”
After guest-editing the April 1965 issue of Harper’s Bazaar, Avedon quit the magazine when he faced a storm of criticism over his collaboration with models of colour. He joined Vogue, where he worked for more than twenty years. In 1992, Avedon became the first staff photographer at The New Yorker, where his portraiture helped redefine the aesthetic of the magazine.
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Richard Avedon, Photographer, New York, May 31, 2002, gelatin silver print, 62.3 x 145.5 cm. Courtesy of Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona. Richard Avedon Archive, gift of the artist. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Toni Morrison, Writer, New York, September 10, 2003, gelatin silver print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Louise Nevelson, Sculptor, New York, May 13, 1975, gelatin silver print, 50.8 x 40 cm. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), John Ford, Director, Bel Air, California, April 11, 1972, gelatin silver print, 94.9 x 94.3 cm. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of the artist, 2022. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Jacob Israel Avedon, Father of Richard Avedon, Sarasota, Florida, October 7, 1969, gelatin silver print, 116.8 x 117.2 cm. Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Committee on Photography Fund. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Gabriel García Márquez, Writer, Mexico City, March 29, 2004, gelatin silver print, 60.9 x 50.8 cm. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
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Photo Thibault Carron
Credits and curatorial team
An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University.
The exhibition is curated by Paul Roth, Director of The Image Centre. Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Zhao-Ionescu Chief Curator of the MMFA, is responsible for the Montreal presentation.
The MMFA wishes to thank Florence Minz for her generous contribution.
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Richard Avedon (1923-2004), Marcel Duchamp, Artist, New York, January 31, 1958, gelatin silver print, 25.9 x 20.3 cm. Courtesy of Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona. Richard Avedon Archive, gift of the artist. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Richard Avedon (1923-2004), William Casby, Born into Slavery, Algiers, Louisiana, March 24, 1963, gelatin silver print, 135.3 x 107.9 cm. © The Richard Avedon Foundation
Photo Thibault Carron
