Whenever I go to Detroit I like to go adventuring with my cousin Craig. I let him pick the adventure. He keeps up better. This time we visited the Detroit Institute of Arts to see the Richard Avedon retrospective. As you might guess, haute couture is not a big priority at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop. However, art, design, and insight into broader cultural considerations are compelling subjects, and Avedon had a lot to say about all of them. Craig and I meandered through fifty years of images from Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, along with original markups and magazine layouts, pondering notions of beauty and messages about social stratification.

Time for treats and debriefing at CaféDIA.  (I choose a table near the donkey sculpture.  I love that donkey.)  I argue for the proposition that fashion is beside the point, Craig argues that it makes the point. I grump that it can’t be about the clothes—in half the photos it’s impossible to even see the clothes. Craig says the clothes and other accoutrements are emblematic, the point is how we organize the culture and each person’s place in it. What about the prince and the pauper? Doesn’t that prove the boxes are meaningless? No, it only proves that in fairytales we can jump from one to the other . . . . We have a wonderful time.

Between bites of supper and brilliant insights, we watch little kids pat the donkey. This is especially amusing for two reasons. First, there is this poster at the entrance to the museum:

Second, there is my confession to Craig that I always patted the donkey when I visited the DIA, which was very often as Rob the Firefighter was growing up. This marks me as a hopeless Philistine. We decide to create an image for this post. Craig will pat the donkey and I will capture him in the act. OK, he won’t really pat the donkey, as he is not a donkey-patting Philistine, but he will appear to pat the donkey.

Can’t you just hear the bullhorn? Do not touch the art! Well . . . maybe not. Take a closer look.

The Detroit Institute of Arts knows when to hold ‘em and knows when to fold ‘em. The donkey is pattable. The tiny tots are not felons. Craig pats, I pat, we proceed to the Rivera Court to listen to the Hot Club of Detroit pay homage to Django Reinhardt.

It was a completely satisfactory evening. The whole visit was like that. Autumn is lingering in the city. There’s still a little color here and there, and the lawns are emerald in Lafayette Park. Rob the Firefighter and the Lady Alicia have a seasonal view of the Renaissance Center from their front step.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with Alicia’s side of the family and a Saturday brunch with friends from the old neighborhood and walks with the dogs everywhere.  As I drove home last night I listened to WDET until the signal faded. One of the day’s sponsors was Stuart Trager wishing Barbara his beloved a happy anniversary, and I let out a happy yelp, startling the dogs. Have I mentioned that Detroit is the world’s biggest small town?

Then we were home. Miss Sadie and the Cowboy bounded out of the car and snuffled about, checking out who dropped by while they were away. I unpacked and made amends to the cat, who is even more pattable than the donkey. This morning I got up and made toast from a delicate fruit bread from Hamtramck, in the toaster Stuart and Barbara gave me as a housewarming present.

All of this is pretty much my central notion of beauty, and definitely my understanding of my place in the world. Hope your Thanksgiving was equally joyful.

Donyale Luna at the entrance to Avedon Fashion at the Detroit Institute of Arts

To some readers out there, the connection between high fashion and the gritty Motor City may seem like an oxymoron. But back in 1965, the idea was not so unlikely when Richard Avedon worked with a beautiful young model from Detroit  named Donyale Luna. As a tribute to this unique Detroiter, her image graces the banner at the entrance to our special exhibition galleries where she stands over 15 feet tall.

Avedon first began using African American models as the subjects for his fashion sessions in the early 1960s.  Donyale Luna had dramatic looks and a six-foot tall slender figure that suited bold and sometimes outrageous designs characteristic of the 1960s. Avedon photographed her for Harper’s Bazaar in 1965 and for Vogue magazine in 1966.  The Vogue sessions featured gladiator-inspired metal mini dresses of designer Paco Rabanne, and although Luna’s image (seen above) is considered to be one of the most iconic photographs of his career, it was actually never published in Vogue.

Fortunately, the Avedon Foundation has allowed one of very few rare vintage exhibition prints to travel with the show. It appears in the exhibition with other photographs of Penelope Tree and Jean Shrimpton – Luna’s model-girl contemporaries well known to the world of 1960s high fashion.

Luna was born Peggy Freeman in Detroit in 1945.  According to Duke University’s Richard Powell she was an aspiring actress active in Detroit theater circles in the early 1960s before moving to New York City to pursue modeling and acting. After working with Avedon, she scored assignments with other high profile photographers including David Bailey who shot her for a cover of British Vogue back in the 1960s. Luna also appeared in a small number of films – perhaps most notably in Italian director Federico Fellini’s Satriycon in 1970.  She passed away in Rome, Italy, well before her time, in 1979.

15 janvier 2009. Berlin

Vu une très belle exposition de Robert Lebeck, puis, dans le même musée (Martin-Gropius-Bau), une autre de Richard Avedon, que j’ai moins aimée : trop de ce genre de photographies dans les années soixante-dix, une mode d’ailleurs un peu pénible, puisqu’il s’agissait de défigurer, au sens proprre, la figure humaine. C’est vite devenu lassant. Cependant, il a fait aussi une superbe (mais tragique) photo de Marylin.

Qualche anno fa ho partecipato ad un corso di fotografia digitale e il docente mi ha fatto riflettere molto sul tipo di sguardo che un fotografo dovrebbe adottare per ogni genere di foto (panorama, ritratto, ecc.), portando dei validi esempi che non conoscevo.

Ora ogni volta che fotografo qualcosa, non posso fare a meno di pensare a chi ha fatto veramente della fotografia un’arte; nulla di presuntuoso da parte mia, ma è certo che se si conoscono i “punti di vista” di chi sa fotografare, magari alla lunga qualcosa si può migliorare ed io di strada ne ho molta da fare.

Ecco perchè ho voluto tenermi archiviata una piccola ricerca sui grandi artisti del passato, che hanno saputo utilizzare la fotografia per esprimere un loro pensiero, utilizzando sicuramente anche strumenti che oggi si potrebbero definire pionieristici.

Le immagini e le biografie sono tratte dai siti proprietari
a solo scopo illustrativo e senza lucro alcuno.

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Richard Avedon (sito ufficiale)

Una delle sue opere più famose è la “The American West “, una raccolta di foto di persone comuni di strada, rigorosamente in bianco e nero, pubblicata in due colori nero / grigio.

Alcun esempi:

Alcuni comuni “Minatori”:

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Andreas Deffner (sito ufficiale)

La sua opera più famosa è stata “White, too white”, una rassegna fotografica di persone indiane albine:

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Irving Penn

E’ famoso per le immagini di moda e di ritratto.

Pablo Picasso 1957

Truman Capote 1965

John Osborne 1958

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Annie Leibovitz

Cristo impacchettato.

John Lennon

Woopy Goldberg

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Philippe Halsman

Tra le sue maggiori opere ci solo le famose foto con Salvador Dalì come soggetto.

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Anne Geddes (sito ufficiale)

La sua fama è stata l’idea di fotografare i bambini neonati in posizioni particolari, un’idea che l’ha resa famosa nel mondo intero, anche non fotografico.

Questa è una piccola galleria di miniature, sotto ci sono alcune sue opere più famose.

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Robert Capa

Bravissimo fotografo, definito anche “fotografo soldato”, che seppe immortalare alcuni momenti storici dei vari conflitti mondiali (una piccola raccolta fotografica).

La sua foto più famosa, Cordoba 1936.

"Leggermente fuori fuoco", sbarco in Normandia.

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Gjon Mili

Ha scoperto l’effetto luce nelle fotografie, famose le sue foto con la partecipazione di Picasso mentre dipinge le sue opere con una torcia elettrica.

La sua tecnica è di dipingere con la luce la pellicola, lasciando il soggetto al buio, aprendo l’obbiettivo e facendo disegnare qualcosa con una fonte luminosa, alla fine un colpo di flash per fissare il tutto.

Picasso che dipinge il minotauro con la luce.

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Robert Doisneau (sito ufficiale)

Il suo nome viene ricordato soprattutto per le foto riguardanti la vita di strada della capitale francese, caratterizzate da una sincera e umoristica rappresentazione della società e dell’ambiente parigino.

Doisneau amava immortalare la cultura dei bambini della strada e dei loro giochi, arrivando a conferire alle loro attività, seppur infantili, rispetto e serietà.

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Steve Mc Curry

Definito il fotografo dell’anima, famosissima la sua foto di copertina del National Geographic di una ragazzina afgana di circa 14 anni conosciuta casualmente in un campo profughi afgano nel 1985, ritornata in auge nel 2001, quando scoprì la ragazza cresciuta (“Passaggio in Italia“).

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August Sander

Ha saputo immortalare i mestieri della sua epoca.

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Henri Cartier Bresson

Si può definire uno dei pionieri della fotografia, dedicava ore per ottenere uno scatto, con una buona macchina Leica-I-1, ma non certo speciale (una piccola rassegna).

Henri Matisse al lavoro

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James Balog 

Un fotografo che ha sempre amato giocare con la natura

Utilizzando più foto per questo grandissimo albero.

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Maurizio Galimberti (sito ufficiale)

Un fotografo contemporaneo che ha saputo inventarsi uno stile suo, utilizzando esclusivamente la Polaroid e formando un’immagine mosaico (una rassegna fotografica).

Mario Monicelli

Isabella Ferrari

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Due fotografi che hanno rappresentato una svolta storica nel conflitto mondiale, entrambi sono stati capaci di riprodurre dei momenti importanti ed unici, anche se in realtà non erano presenti fisicamente all’accaduto:

Joe Rosenthal

Nella battaglia di Iwo Jima la vera bandiera non è mai stata fotografata e questa è una sostituzione della prima

Yevgeny Khaldei

Il bombardamento rappresentato e la caduta di Berlino erano del giorno prima, ma mancava la bandiera e lui stesso l’ha ricostruita sul tetto, usando della stoffa rossa e della carta bianca per la falce e martello.

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John Paul Caponigro (sito ufficiale)

Artista di fama internazionale, John Paul Caponigro è l’autore di “Adobe Photoshop Master Class” (Adobe Press); un secondo volume, “The Power of Color” (Focal), è in via di pubblicazione. Caponigro tiene workshop in tutto il mondo, inclusi seminari sul colore, è considerato il maestro del Photoshop.

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Uliano Lucas (sito ufficiale)

Fotografo milanese, si è affermato come fotografo intorno agli anni ’70, quando documentò le lotte operaie e studentesche a Torino e Milano. Figlio di operai, ha fatto dell’impegno sociale un tema di fondo della sua opera, dal forte contenuto simbolico.

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Una rassegna di artisti, per mia futura memoria.

Bye  

” If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.” -Richard Avedon

“While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.” -Dorothea Lange

It’s all been said before, however some people just say it better than others.

Billy Pappas, detail from 'Marilyn Up Close'

First in a regular new series where I post links of interest…

Historical novelist Mary Sharratt interviews Erika Mailman, author of The Witch’s Trinity:

While I had thought my book looked at an outdated belief mode while casting light on modern-day scapegoatism, it turns out I was really writing about something current. The same sorts of accusations ring out today as they did centuries ago, hitting the themes of hunger, infertility, and the mundane occurrence of random bad luck.

Newsweek ponders the ‘blah-blah’ of Lady Gaga, and the inevitable Madonna comparisons…

Pop’s intelligentsia has largely gone along with Gaga, anointing her, like Madonna, a dance maven who has something to communicate aside from great grooves…She writes strong melodies and gives us great photos, but unlike Madonna—who was willing to tie provocation to a discernible purpose in ‘Like a Prayer’—Gaga offers no synthesis.

(To be fair to Gaga, Madonna’s ‘Hanky Panky’ wasn’t exactly Shakespeare either.)

Artist Billy Pappas spent eight years on a pencil drawing of Marilyn Monroe – based on Richard Avedon’s famous photograph, it’s described as ‘the sharpest portrait the world has even seen.’ So, why Marilyn?

Marilyn belongs to all of us. Her visage is arguably the most ubiquitous in history. And her having already been the subject of countless artists made her image an even greater challenge through which I could introduce something new. I especially liked Richard Avedon’s portrait, engaging because it showed Marilyn’s thoughtfulness and vulnerability. Moreover, the Avedon portrait possesses a very soft—if any—focus. These characteristics made this particular image a perfect vehicle to serve as my point of departure.

Photographed by Steve Scap

Strobist Info: SB-600 with sto-fen @ 1/16 hand held off to camera left.

– License

The Art of Time in Fiction by Joan Silber

America’s best press has been putting out these slim little books for a bit now, and this last batch (and the next few) seem like the best ones yet. That’s not a knock on what’s come before, but, seriously, how can you go wrong with Joan Silber? The woman’s a dynamite writer of fiction and, it turns out now, a writer of non-fiction, too.

I know all of us who teach this stuff love to talk about questions of craft when making fiction, and it’s a pleasant little delusion, to talk as if we actually understand how these issues of craft work, but the truth is, by and large, we don’t quite know how they work. Character? Setting? These things we load up and charge, but we rarely have the pure gimlet-eyed glance we proclaim in class as necessary to execute fiction masterfully.

Even more complex: time in fiction. The ways in which sentences do or don’t sing, and in which keys. Put it this way: a class in which elements of craft are emphasized and studied would be a breeze compared to a class in which, say, one were to read Alice Munro and Tobias Wolff back to back in an attempt to understand how time fundamentally works in their short fiction. It’s a minefield, unmitigated disaster: from the first sentence, the writer either writes “he said” or “he says” or “he will say” or some other conjugation, but how does one even delicately approach that loaded world of choice?

I’ve yet to see a more lucid and delicate and well-written account of this sort of consideration than Silber’s The Art of Time in Fiction (I didn’t read Birkets’ Art of Time in Memoir, so apologies if that’s just as good and I’m simply a poorly-read heel), and I will absolutely admit that the book, in the best ways, doesn’t offer answers: this is not an entry-level book in which one can suss out tics or tendencies which could help a story’s momentum. No, the book’s a stellar complexifier, a whisk in milk: Silber’s thin book blasts wide and open ideas of time and momentum in a story, and the reader will, at the book’s end, be unable not to, somewhere deep inside, hear new tickings each time some book of fiction’s cracked. And, as ever, all praise to Graywolf for having the luxurious daring to put out these strange and life-changing little books.

Proud Flesh by Sally Mann, with a contribution form CD Wright

If you don’t like Sally Mann, there are only two explanations: 1. You aren’t familiar with her work, or 2. You’re wrong. Here’s who’s keeping American photography as lively and great as anyone could hope. It’s diminishing to call her stuff more backwoods stuff “like a southern Diane Arbus” or this latest collection “like Sarah Moon’s stuff but more emotional,” but those little aesthetic touchstones are mildly helpful in this context.

What you need to know, more than anything else, is that Sally Mann’s photography is chronically at work trying to get at and into stuff through photography, in ways that, in all honesty, seem to me most reminiscent of some of the stuff Avedon did. They’re entirely different artists, of course, but there should be, somewhere, some well-written and -thought-out piece that examines the split in photography among those whose work is fundamentally capturative and/or topical in nature vs those whose work is probing or examining in nature. If it seems a silly distinction, pick up a copy of, say, Vanity Fair, in which the pictures are all lovely but are also, essentially, time-capturing in nature: here’s Tom Hanks like this, Stephanie Seymour as that, etc.

Not so Sally Mann: this collection of images documents the body of her husband, and Mann’s got a sympathetic eye anyway, but, honestly, this collection is about as tender and loving a series of photographs as imaginable. Who other than a spouse can so carefully, lovingly capture another’s body with such delicacy, such concern? And to charge this instance further: Sally Mann and her husband Larry have been married 40 years, and he has muscular dystrophy.

It’s an astonishing collection—one of those things which, once you see it, you cannot fundamentally get back to who you were before. Mann’s got a terribly interesting mini-essay about the whole thing here, and it’s worth reading and perusing the pictures just to get a sense of this stuff, and to hear her own take on these things, but the truth is, the pictures, largely, speak for themselves: Proud Flesh is, in magical ways, a work grounded in dialogue—between Mann and her husband, between the viewer and Mann’s husband and, most frighteningly, between the reader and him/herself and his/her own ideas of what it means to look at a beloved.

As if you needed further inducement to own this book, C. D. Wright’s intro is, like the rest of her stuff, mysterious and wild and canny and twisty and liquidly electric. Surely someone you know needs this book right now: buy it and have it on hand when the time arises to pass it along.

The time and effort that went into photos back when people had an appreciation for art. Now models go to kinkos and print photos, place them in a folder and call it a portfolio.  I refuse to settle, nor will I work with those type of people.

Somewhere along the line the people that I come across on the daily forgot what quality was. Not just with photography or music but it even goes as far as the quality of life. They are living to impress others and always feel they have something to prove so in the process they begin to make the moves they see others making instead of living for themselves, doing what they love doing. With all these social networking sites its easy to get trapped up in the trending topic of the day. Just try to stay focused and remember that quality is important. You can lie to the people but you cant lie yourself…

I think sometime earlier this year I almost forgot what quality was… Took a small break from fashion photography to get my mind right. Now I feel I am ready again.

via

I came across this quote today on Twitter (from AndreaBurgess8): “All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” ~Richard Avedon
Wow…. this describes my work perfectly. My photographs are accurate in that I have composed them and snapped the shutter when I liked what I saw on the LCD screen. And, none of them is the truth because I do manipulate and alter them in Photoshop. But I like to think that I am “heightening the truth” by trying to evoke the emotion I felt for the scene before me. Since this heightened reality is made up of multiple layers, the truth lies between those layers and comes to fruition when they are combined in the final image.

Back to work,
Len

Richard Avedon, Self-portrait, Provo, Utah, August 20, 1980; © 2009 The Richard Avedon Foundation

Richard Avedon (1923-2004) has always drawn a crowd.  His current show at SFMOMA, “Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004” July 11 through November 29, 2009, is the first comprehensive retrospective his work since the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2002 blockbuster show “Richard Avedon: Portraits”, and delivers over 200 of his signature photographs and some surprises, photos that are less famous.  The show was organized by Helle Crenzien for The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Denmark in cooperation with the Richard Avedon Foundation, and has traveled to France, Germany, the Netherlands.  SFMOMA is the only US venue the show is installed here by Sandra Phillips, SFMOMA Senior Curator of Photography, with support from SFMOMA curator Corey Keller, Norma Stevens and James Martin from Richard Avedon Foundation and the Jeffrey Frankel Gallery.  The San Francisco show includes famous models (Veruschka, Suzy Parker, Domvina, Twiggy), movie stars (Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn), rock stars (the Beatles, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Bjork), world leaders (Eisenhower, Kissinger, Ted Kennedy), writers and poets (Ezra Pound, Renata Adler), artists (Willem de Kooning, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol) and several very interesting portraits of non-famous people—cowboys, drifters–on the fringe.

I had a talk with Sandra Phillips, SFMOMA Senior Photography Curator, and with Norma Stevens, Avedon’s long-term “person” (friend, colleague, and Founding Executive Director of the Richard Avedon Foundation in New York) and with James Martin, Managing Director, The Richard Avedon Foundation, who worked closely with Avedon in the darkroom up until Avedon’s death in 2004.  

 Geneva Anderson:  As Avedon became more and more famous over the years, did his work process change?  Did he become more selective about who he worked with, choosing the subjects himself, or did he work on commission?  

 SANDRA PHILLIPS:  He worked pretty much only through commissions.  He had a very strange egalitarianism mixed with celebrity.  I think what he tried to do was to show that people were remarkable and that famous people were as remarkable as people who are remarkable in different ways. 

His work did change over time.  It changed, I think, because the market place evolved. Harper’s became a less interesting magazine.  It is significant that his last position was at The New Yorker which was kind of like Harper’s Bazar had been and he was very interested in making that a vital magazine.   He also did these commissions In the American West—these people who are not celebrities, they are unknown and that was an interesting challenge for him.  They are not humanitarian pictures; they are very serious pictures though that show the dignity that people have acquired through living as they have and where they have.

I believed the 1960’s shaped him profoundly in the way it shaped us–a period of tremendous upheaval whose resonance we still experience.  He photographed all the players, the heroes and villains, from Janis Joplin, to the Beatles, to Warhol, to the Vietnam Generals, to George Wallace.  And his pictures of art aristocrat’s Robert Frank, Willem de Kooning and Jasper Johns come from the same special family as those more broadly known. Avedon saw them all as an individuals and all as models.

NORMA STEVENS:  He worked both ways. He worked for Harpers, Vogue, The New Yorker, so if he wanted a photograph someone, like say Ezra Pound, that request came from him through the magazine.  If the magazine brought him someone, he would do that too.  It happened all along the way and I am talking about the portraits–they were something that were of enormous interest to him.  He had fascination with the arts—artists like Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning and writers like Tennessee Williams, Dorothy Parker. By the time he got to The New Yorker, it was wonderful because they were interested and would bring him people that he might not have even known about and it was a wonderful collaboration.

 Geneva Anderson:  Did he ever refuse to photograph anyone?

NORMA STEVENS:  Well, Madonna.  When a celebrity comes, they have their idea of how they want to look and you can go along with it but Dick would always want to add his creative mark, how he saw what they wanted to portray.  There might be a little struggle but, with her, she was not interested in working with him and he was definitely not interested in working with her.

Geneva Anderson:   Did she approach him?

NORMA STEVENS:  With celebrities, it’s usually mediated.  She sent her people to our people (and that was me).  She has people she loves working with like Steven Meisel. Dick was not her time of day.  It would have been interesting though–don’t you think?– to see what would have come out of that?

 He had something like that too with Sharon Stone, where he was given that assignment form The New Yorker and she came  with her own press person, and we never had that before for a sitting.  Dick had gotten a dress overnighted from Steve McQueen couture in London that he really wanted her to wear–his clothes are something else.  He struggled to get that dress on her because she looked at it and did not want to wear it.  She said she’d gained too much weight.  He wanted her to put it on and offered to cut it down the back to fit her.  She did not want to wear it and her pr lady told us she doesn’t want to wear that dress.  Dick was there and said something like “She will work with me and I want her to wear that dress.”  Sharon and the pr lady stormed out of the studio.  So it took the writer, who was writing about that sitting, and the editor of The New Yorker (Tina Brown) to call Sharon and to call Dick and to negotiate.  So Sharon did come back and the picture that Dick took is interesting and it’s in another fashion show and in a book called Performance where John Lahr writes about it superbly. 

 Geneva Anderson:   Did he strictly adhere to no cropping?

Richard Avedon, Marian Anderson, contralto, New York, June 30, 1955; © 2009 The Richard Avedon Foundation

NORMA STEVENS:  He rarely cropped.  The prints you see here with all the black edge—that’s the entire photo.  He did it in the camera and that was it.  He used a big 8×10.  The printers would go all through the night and prepare images for him to review in the morning and he would make comments like “it needs a little more drama.”  And they had to interpret that.

Geneva Anderson:  How did the advent of digital photography impact him?

SANDRA PHILLIPS:  I am inclined to say it didn’t.

NORMA STEVENS:  He tried it and it didn’t really impress him.  He might have gone around and said no further prints can be made.  He was very strict about that.

Geneva Anderson:  What was it like over the years?   How did you make it?

NORMA STEVENS:  I am still here.  It wasn’t always fun.  It was an awful lot of work.  Look at the energy in those portraits around us…he was just like that…he was so full of energy.

James Martin, Executive Director of the Richard Avedon Foundation  worked as a dark room technician for Richard Avedon during his final years.

Geneva Anderson:  Take me through a typical experience with Avedon.

JAMES MARTIN:   I did a lot of his printing.  If you look at the way he has printed, it hasn’t changed that much. Earl Steinbicker, who worked with him from the 1950’s onward, is writing a book about the experience and his blog describers the printing technique.  The process for a single print involves making ten different prints with slightly different contrast ratios—darker or lighter and picking the four that they—the team–think Dick would want.  Those were printed 16 x 20 and put on his kitchen table in morning and, of course, they would all be wrong.  He would say things like “the ear is perfect–you should focus on the ear.”  And so you would go back down to the dark room and spend 4 or 5 hours and make another range of say 6 images based on his comment.  You would bring these up to him and you would get closer but he would say these are garbage.  And so it went.

Geneva Anderson: He had the capacity to use very technical terms to describe precisely what he wanted but it sounded like he chose to communicate in a non-technical way.

JAMES MARTIN:   Yes, he would communicate in a very non-technical way.  He would communicate with us using phrases like “this “needs to have more passion” which, in a sense, is not technical but you know exactly what you need to do as a darkroom technician.  “More passion” is a nuanced way to work with the printing process.  Everything was done downstairs in the basement and you would work all day long on a single print, sometimes at 3 in the morning and he would talk in a very non-technical way–“More drama here, less drama there.”  It was a very intuitive way of going about it—it’s also talking with the other technicians you are working with and trying to determine what that means, what does that translate to.  It was a lot of teamwork and a lot of team building.

Richard Avedon, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano, New York, October 1, 2003; © 2009 The Richard Avedon Foundation

Geneva  Anderson:  Is there a photograph here that you were responsible for printing?

JAMES MARTIN:  There is only one in this show—the portrait of the singer Lorraine Hunt Leiberman. It’s really fairly close towards the end of his life.  He was 82 when he did this project and was aware that it was his last major effort and he knows it and he knows he needs to come up a last important series of photographs.  And this was for The New Yorker but it was also for himself.  He working on this book Woman in the Mirror , photographs of hope, woman that bring that sense of coda to his story, to the work of Avedon.

These are different portraits. This is a very tender tender image.  You do not see that forgiving quality in his earlier work.  That meant lowering the contrast in the face with one filter yet pumping the contrast up in the hair.  But once you did that, you ran into the problem of what does that hair convey?  She had red hair and as I took the photo back to him, he would say that it doesn’t look like a photograph of a redhead.  I had to translate that into technical printing—how do you make that hair look red and preserve the contrast with the softness in the face?  It was certainly a challenge and you make choice and it probably took me 20 hours just working on the contrast ratios in the hair alone to really pull it up.  Now that I am looking at it here, I am seeing that in certain light, it looks a little more brown than red.  It’s very hard to look at this without seeing the other photos, the history.

Contrast that with the 1955 portrait of Marian Anderson  the legendary contralto singer who is captured in a moment of intense inner concentration on song.   By waiting for the moment when her eyes were closed, attention is drawn to her mouth, to her total embodiment of voice.  There is strength in this portrait rather than the tenderness and vulnerability in the last portraits of women.  Anderson fought in a very quiet and effective way to be heard in the 1930s, despite attempts by the Daughters of the American Revolution to prevent her from singing at Washington D.C.’s DAR-owned Constitution Hall because of her race.  Her exclusion caused First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to resign from the organization—one would be able to detect a kind of moral probity and strength in this portrait as well.

 Geneva Anderson:  Your relationship with him had a lot of do with your ability to be very patient.

JAMES MARTIN:  It’s like with any relationship, you need to learn to know intuitively what they are asking for.  When I started I thought I know a lot about photography and I realized that I knew very little, very little.

 As one of fashion’s most famous photographers, I was really excited to see the exhibit,  and I wasn’t at all disappointed:) Richard Avedon’s career began in the 1940’s with his first published photos when he was just 21 years old. For decades he was the photographer for Harper’s Bazaar and then Vogue magazines. Avedon’s photography is most famous for soft focus textures, non-static energy, his use of ethnic models and perhaps most importantly the way he juxtaposed the uber-glamourous model subjects amidst unusual settings. These are only a few of my favorites from the exhibit….

“Magnum Opus“ AVEDON

Iconic American  photographer Richard Avedon’s exhibition at Detroit Institute of Arts was nothing less than a visual wonder !!  Known for combining technical innovation with timeless glamour & elegance . His collection of portraits & fashion photography from 1944-2000 was high on stark compositions &  emotions . A classic visual orator, captured  famous models & actors like Dovima , Bridgette Bardot , Marlin Monroe , Audrey Hepburn,Twiggy  & socialites like Marella Agnelli in live action thus exposing their innate self . He often chose city backdrops  where common people would be artistically combined in his frames. work includes a visual reportage of people like miners,cowboys in his bestselling book In the American West. Avedon was also one of the first  fashion photographers to capture  African-American model from Detroit Donyale Luna and the Eurasian model China Machado. What was most inspiring in the exhibition were particularly his B&W pictures from 1940s  to 1960s ! Most of his photographs then were taken for brands like Christian Dior & Balenciaga .The beauty of the compositions  is reflected from the unique angles that seem to converse profoundly with the spectators.

Phil Poynter work on Lacoste is quite an example of how inspiring was Avedon.

]]> http://mattkuhar.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/goat-failure/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:50:31 +0000 matt kuhar http://mattkuhar.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/goat-failure/

It’s amazing how many songs on my Mp3 player I don’t want to hear.

Just got back from Planet Michigan. It was nice to see full-on fall colors. We don’t get that here in Colorado.

(an unforgivable failing)

In hindsight, we don’t get much in Colorado. Oh, there was three feet of snow that came and went while I was gone. That is nothing to be happy about. I know that some of these people around here like that, but they should go the way of Sonny Bono. Another asshole meets a tree, another angel gets its wings.

Me, I want to be cultured, so I hit the Detroit Institute of Arts to check out the Richard Avedon exhibit. I liked it. The man had a good eye. The rest of the museum suitably impressive.

Astoria Pastry Shop in Royal Oak (and Greektown) is absolutely amazing. I wanted to go back every day. Six times a day.

Wading through the throngs at the Greektown Casino was interesting experience. That place has gotten so much bigger since the last time I was there. It has a 13th floor? Wonderful. Slithered down the street to grab a black and tan at the Old Shaleighleigh. I got to experience two ounces of Kid Rock’s Badass beer.

Two ounces of mediocrity in a bottle as opposed to on a CD.

The fact that I have not had hit Pizza Papalis at any time during my last three trips home is an unforgivable sin. The fact that I tried a pretty good Cuban restaurant (Vicente’s) does not make up for this.

We ate so much so often that my plan to eat at Cedar Garden 72 times was reduced to just one (perfect) meal. Rack up another meal of shear awesomeness at Polonia in Hamtramck. Those two places can do no wrong. There was a lot of Polish food devoured in such a short trip.

Stopped in Dragonmead Microbrewery for the first time. One Russian Imperial Stout and the requisite Final Absolution. I will be back, oh yes I will. If you have the foresite to serve mustard with pretzels, you deserve to live long and prosper.

Lest someone thinks that all we did was eat and drink, well, we carved pumpkins too. Of course there was Blake’s Apple Orchard, but there I go eating again. The experience was slightly marred by goat failure. The less said about that the better.

And that whole Underground Wrestling Federation thing…. didn’t pan out. Ron will pay for that.

It was a good trip. So much to do and so little time, and all you get is this disjointed listing of haphazard events. There was a good bit of Fall/Halloween related stuff, but not enough. I got to decorate the house and pass out candy (some pre-tested by the dog.) Hell, I even bought face-paint for a Gene Simmons head I never got around to putting on.

Saw some of the people I wanted to see, but missed so many more. Next time, neglected monsters, we will see each other and play for blood. Didn’t get to rent a wood-chipper and kill the Space Vampire, either. I am somehow sure I will pay for this later.

Next time will be bigger, longer, and much uglier. There’s gotta be something big next year. I’m putting all of you on notice.

Fun.

Oh,  let’s not forget that I went to Walmart. And Target.

Sexy.

]]> http://robinlam.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/speaking-of-avedon/ Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:19:41 +0000 robinlam http://robinlam.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/speaking-of-avedon/

Following up on that quote in the post before, I thought I’d post up some pictures from Avedon. He was famous as a fashion photographer–this Marilyn Monroe picture below was one that was especially famous for its raw quality that captured Monroe as an insecure and vulnerable girl, which she was. His collection In the American West was also an acclaimed piece of work, which I’ll go into more detail in a later post. In any case, enjoy.

Um. Yes, this is a great photo, but really? Snakes? How much was this model paid to pose naked with a snake…

Another iconic Avedon photo. The juxtaposition of the beautiful, beautiful evening gown with the coarse, dry elephant skin really makes the dress pop out. In addition to Avedon’s skill for capturing the moment, I think the elegance of the photo was really brought out by the model herself. Her elongated body lines are further emphasized by the stoutness of the animals’ limbs. The flowing line of the white train mimics the curve of the elephant’s snout, and the elephants’ feet are in direction opposition to the woman’s shoe. If America’s Next Top Model had women like this, the show would definitely be much, much more exciting.

Below is my one of my favorite photographs from In the American West. The man in the photo was a cattle herder or something in that vein. Notice the cigarette box tucked into his pants. It’s interesting how posture, the curved back, hunched shoulders, jutting hips, and tucked hand position are all techniques that models use, and that seem to be natural to this man. To me, Avedon’s greatest strength lies in his ability to capture intensity in the eyes of the subject. This man, origins, history, family unknown, is has a sinuously seductive look in the photograph that is just amazing to see in person.

Bob Dylan. In Central Park, y’all.

And the man, Avedon himself. Looking a little insecure and “vain,” as Janet would say.

I believe in maniacs. I believe in type As. I believe that you’ve got to love your work so much that it is all you want to do. I believe you must betray your mistress for your work, you betray your wife for your work; I believe that she must betray you for her work. I believe that work is the one thing in the world that never betrays you, that lasts. If I were going to be a politician, if I were going to be a scientist, I would do it every day. I wouldn’t wait for Monday. I don’t believe in weekends. If you’re headed for a life that’s only involved with making money and that you hope for satisfaction somewhere else, you’re headed for a lot of trouble. And whatever replaces vodka when you’re 45 is what you’re going to be doing.

Richard Avedon – 1988

Avedon just about sums up what ‘passion for your work’ really means. Of course he was lucky and actually got to do what he loved, but I hope that everyone has some kind of passion or obsession that they pursue, so the everyday doesn’t degenerate into the mundane.

The installation and opening events for Avedon Fashion Photographs have kept all my  blogging efforts to a minimum over the last several weeks. And even though I feel like I’ve been underground and just now coming up for air, there seems to be no escape from Richard Avedon outside the DIA’s gallery walls. Driving around town I am greeted daily by the our billboards. They bring a little elegance and charm to our local skylines.

And it’s all good. Not just good- it’s great. This is a stunning exhibition. It was brought to perfection by James Martin, managing director at the Avedon Foundation in New York City. James and I worked tirelessly on site with DIA staff to get this exhibition of around 180 photographs as well as dozens of vintage fashion magazines installed earlier this month.

James Martin of the Avedon Foundation

Working with Avedon during the final years of his career (Avedon passed away in 2004), James has a second sense about the amazing eye and legacy of this brilliant and prolific photographer.

The DIA’s been having fun with the exhibition online too. On our Flickr “Fashion by the Decade” page, post your own fashionable photos of friends, family members, or maybe yourself, if you have the courage. You may even win some free tickets to the exhibition or to our annual November gala called “To the Nines.”

Don’t be shy. Just remember what Richard Avedon said, “Fashion is one of the richest expressions of human desires, ambitions, needs, frailty, insecurity, security. What we wear is an indication of our sense of ourselves. It’s a gift.

Remember when people debated whether or not photography is a real art form? For a long time, pictorialism reigned, which meant most art photography copied the paintings and etchings of the time. But I think photography has really broken free of its initial shackles (and probably inferiority complex) and now seeks to capture what cannot be done in any other medium. I’m sure some would argue nowadays that fashion photography isn’t really “art”, but maybe it’s because they haven’t seen…

Richard Avedon

Louise Dahl-Wolfe

Irving Penn

Helmut Newton

Mario Testino

Peter Lindbergh

I think every great photograph tells a story. Or rather, the photographer caught the subject in the middle of something, and it is up to the viewer to figure out the rest. A good photograph inspires the viewer’s imagination, but the entire experience is so seamless in that no words are needed and the photographer tricks us into believing our story is he/she intended to portray all along. SO CLEVER!!!

(I know I didn’t include Meisel, Demarchelier, Leibovitz, and so many other greats. Not because they are not great. But I needed to save some of them for another time!)