Richard Avedon ha catturato gli ideali americani di celebrità, moda e bellezza nel XX e all'inizio del XXI secolo, contribuendo a stabilire la fotografia come forma d'arte contemporanea. Lo stile distintivo di fotografia di ritratto di Avedon è iconico. Mentre i ritratti dei suoi contemporanei si concentravano su singoli momenti o composizioni formali, la sua illuminazione austera e gli sfondi bianchi minimalisti attiravano lo spettatore verso il potere intimo ed emotivo dell'espressione del soggetto. Tra il 1945 e il 1965, ha lavorato come fotografo di moda, rivoluzionando il mestiere mentre affinava la sua estetica. Il suo lavoro è apparso su riviste come Harper’s Bazaar e Vogue, fino a Life e Look, per poi spostarsi nel giornalismo e nel mondo dell'arte. I suoi soggetti spaziavano da icone pop e modelle a scrittori, lavoratori, soldati e la sua stessa famiglia. Come osserva il curatore Paul Roth: “In un ritratto di Avedon, il volto mappa un'intersezione: è un luogo dove il mondo al di fuori della fotografia incontra il mondo all'interno della mente.”
"Baldwin's critique of American society at the height of the civil rights movement brings his prescient thoughts on social isolation, race, and police brutality to a new generation of readers"-- Provided by publisher
"We all perform. It's what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintentionally. It's a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we'd like to be."--Richard Avedon, 1974The preeminent stars and artists of the performing arts from the second half of the 20th century offered their greatest gifts―and, sometimes, their inner lives―to Richard Avedon. More than 200 are portrayed in Performance, many in photographs that have been rarely or never seen before. Of course, the great stars light the Hepburn and Chaplin, Monroe and Garland, Brando and Sinatra. But here too are the actors and comedians, pop stars and divas, musicians and dancers, artists in all mediums with public lives that were essentially performances, who stand at the pinnacle of our cultural achievement. The celebrated author and critic John Lahr offers an elegant assessment of Avedon’s achievement. Four supremely talented artists from the performing arts―Mike Nichols, André Gregory, Mitsuko Uchida, and Twyla Tharp―contribute lively and moving memoirs about their collaborations with Avedon.
Richard Avedon photographed the faces of politics throughout his career and this book brings together his political portraits for the first time. Juxtaposing images of elite government, media, and labor officials with photographs of countercultural activists, writers and artists, and ordinary citizens caught up in national debates, it explores a five-decade taxonomy of politics and power by one of America's best-known artists. The book features Avedon's extended projects on the civil rights debate in the early 1960s (published in 1964 in Nothing Personal); the American anti-war movement and the war in Vietnam from 1969-1971; portraits of the American power elite in 1976 for his groundbreaking Rolling Stone portfolio The Family; "Exiles: The Kennedy Court at the End of the American Century," a retrospective homage to the Camelot generation, published in The New Yorker in 1993; and his final photo-essay, "Democracy," surveying the American state of mind during the politically-fractious time prior to the country's 2004 presidential election (published posthumously in The New Yorker in 2004).
Die Bilder des vorliegenden Bandes führen uns in den Januar des Jahres 1961 zurück. Chubby Checker hatte gerade den Twist erfunden, Walter Ulbricht hatte die Berliner Mauer noch nicht gebaut. Und Richard Avedon, einer der herausragenden jungen Photographen Amerikas, hatte den Auftrag bekommen, den soeben zum neuen Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten gewählten Senator John F. Kennedy vor dessen Amtseinführung für die große Illustrierte Look und die Modezeitschrift Harper's Bazaar zu photographieren. Das Shooting fand in der Winterresidenz der Kennedys in Palm Beach, Florida, statt. Richard Avedon photographierte den jungen Senator, der sich anschickte, einer der mächtigsten Männer der Welt zu werden, seine schöne junge Frau Jackie, die Amerika und die Welt bezaubern sollte, die Tochter Caroline und den kleinen Sohn John John jr. Unser Buch „Die Kennedys: Portrait einer Familie“ enthält 75 Avedon-Photographien, die bei dieser Gelegenheit entstanden und bisher unveröffentlicht sind. Avedons Bilder wurden jüngst in der Sammlung der Smithsonian Institution in Washington entdeckt. Sie sind anrührend und betörend zugleich.
This publication presents over one hundred of Avedon-s most beautiful classic images from his entire oeuvre of photography.
Martin Munkacsi, a celebrated fashion photographer born in Hungary in 1896, made significant contributions to photography during his time in Berlin in the 1920s and 1930s before immigrating to New York City in 1934. As one of the highest-paid photographers of his era, he profoundly influenced contemporaries like Richard Avedon. Despite his impact, Munkacsi's work fell out of favor by the time of his death in 1963. Recently, he has gained recognition as a pivotal figure in 20th-century photography, credited with shaping modern photojournalism by merging factual accuracy with a formal aesthetic. A key proponent of the 'Neues Sehen' (New Way of Seeing), Munkacsi's groundbreaking fashion and sports photography remains unmatched. Much of his work has been scattered and lost over the years, though the Ullstein Archive in Berlin houses a significant collection from his time in Hungary and Germany. This compilation assembles Munkacsi's images like never before, showcasing photographs from various artistic phases, including many that have not been seen since their original magazine publications. Featuring 318 tritones, it provides a valuable glimpse into the complex beginnings of photography during a transformative era.
The book presents an incisive essay by art historian Anne Hollander, focusing on Richard Avedon's portrayal of women during a transformative era. It explores how Avedon's photography captured the evolving social dynamics, cultural ideals, and fashion trends over fifty years, providing a unique perspective on women's representation in art and society.
Richard Avedon revolutionierte die Porträtfotografie des 20. Jahrhunderts mit einer Technik, die er als Modefotograf für führende Magazine entwickelte. Seine Modelle positionierte er vor einem weißen Hintergrund, um Ablenkungen zu vermeiden. Diese minimalistische Herangehensweise ermöglicht es ihm, unerwartete Facetten von prominenten und unbekannten Personen zu enthüllen. Für Avedon ist ein Porträt nicht nur ein Abbild, sondern eine subjektive Meinung, die er sich im Laufe seiner Karriere von vielen bedeutenden Menschen gebildet hat. Er fotografierte Hollywoodgrößen wie Audrey Hepburn und Marilyn Monroe sowie Künstler wie Andy Warhol und Samuel Beckett. Besonders eindrucksvoll ist seine Fotoserie über seinen todkranken Vater. Anlässlich einer Ausstellung im Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York werden Avedons Werke, die von den Anfängen in den 1940er Jahren bis zur Gegenwart reichen, in einem besonderen Leporello-Format präsentiert. Dieses Buch fungiert als Mini-Ausstellung, die man im Regal bewundern kann. Begleittexte von Avedon und zwei Kuratorinnen des Museums reflektieren die Philosophie eines der bedeutendsten Bildkünstler des 20. Jahrhunderts. Richard Avedon, 1923 in New York geboren, studierte Philosophie und war Autodidakt in der Fotografie, bevor er durch seine Modeaufnahmen große Popularität erlangte.
