An Autobiography Richard Avedon, Coffee Table or Library Book, ca. 1990s
View Similar Items
An Autobiography Richard Avedon, Coffee Table or Library Book, ca. 1990s
About the Item
- Creator:Richard Avedon (Photographer)
- Dimensions:Height: 14 in (35.56 cm)Width: 11 in (27.94 cm)Depth: 0.75 in (1.91 cm)
- Style:Post-Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1993
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1314222099102
Richard Avedon
A while back, Richard Avedon had a confession to make. “I hate cameras,” said the man who revolutionized fashion and portrait photography. “If I could only work with my eyes alone!”
Yet Avedon’s photos seem to do just that — they remove the distance the camera lens creates to make you feel that you are right there beside his subjects.
Born in New York City in 1923, Avedon had a stern father, an artistic mother and a beautiful, but troubled, sister. At 18, he wanted to be a poet. And the slight, 5’7” dreamer didn’t lack confidence — or a sense of drama. “I know my drifting will not prove a loss / For mine is a rolling stone that has gathered moss,” he wrote in 1941.
A year later, Avedon joined the Merchant Marines, where he spent his World War II years shooting ID photos of new recruits. “I must have taken pictures of 100,000 faces before it occurred to me I was becoming a photographer,” he later recalled.
After demobilization in 1944, Avedon shot fashion pictures for the tony Manhattan department store Bonwit Teller and studied with Alexey Brodovitch, the legendary art director of Harper’s Bazaar. By 1945, his work was appearing in Junior Bazaar.
“His first photographs for us were technically very bad,” Brodovitch later recalled. “But they were not snapshots. . . . Those first pictures of his had freshness and individuality, and they showed enthusiasm and a willingness to take chances.”
Who else was willing to take chances? Brodovitch and Carmel Snow, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, who soon sent the young talent to fashion’s sacred capital, Paris.
The postwar years were hard in Paris. When Avedon first arrived there, in 1946, it was with an explicit directive from Snow. “Dick was tasked with this idea that he was there to rebuild Paris,” explains Martin. In restoring the energy and excitement around Paris, Avedon imbued it with some of his own.
Avedon’s models jumped, twirled, leapt over puddles and they smiled. Like Avedon himself, they rarely stood still. While he wasn’t the first to use action in fashion photography (in the 1930s, Martin Munkacsi and Toni Frissell began creating fashion images of women engaged in sporty scenarios), Avedon was the first to pair such vitality with women wearing couture.
Character and spirit became la mode. Dovima’s graceful silhouette juxtaposed against the wrinkled heft of two shackled elephants. Dorian Leigh laughing and embracing a bicycle racer. Suzy Parker roller skating across the Place de la Concorde. Sunny Harnett and her cool gaze just daring the roulette table — and every man in the room — not to do her bidding. There was always a narrative in an Avedon mise en scène — whether the background was elaborately staged or stark, the model’s job had forever changed from posing, to acting.
Of course, Avedon did not limit himself to fashion photography. The little boy who once collected autographs grew up to create the most iconic portraits of the 20th century, many of these were included in an exhibition at Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, New York, in 2017.
A 1958 New Yorker profile noted that even though Avedon’s portraits immortalized cultural elites such as Truman Capote, Elsa Maxwell and Charles Laughton, the qualities that most interested the photographer were “advanced age, physical debility, ugliness, or the pathos underlying the surface insouciance.” Yet “none of Avedon’s subjects seem to resent this kind of treatment . . . being selected to sit for one of his Harper’s Bazaar portraits ranks as an accolade.”
Over the next 40-plus years of his career, his iconic portraiture never lost its force; although at times, his unvarnished truth felt cruel.
But Avedon was a creator, not an observer, and he made no apologies for this. The sitter and the photographer “have separate ambitions for the image,” he wrote in 1985. “His need to plead his case probably goes as deep as my need to plead mine, but the control is with me.”
Find original Richard Avedon photography on 1stDibs.
- Andy Warhol Diaries, Hard-Cover Library or Coffee Table Book, 1989By Andy WarholLocated in New York, NY'The Andy Warhol Diaries' book is hard-cover, first edition, May 1989. The Andy Warhol Diaries is the dictated memoirs of the American artist, Andy Warhol, posthumously published, May 1989, USA. It was edited by his frequent collaborator and long-time friend, Pat Hackett...Category
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Books
MaterialsPaper
- Bulgari Luxury Jewelry Coffee Table Book, 1990sBy BulgariLocated in New York, NYThis is a beautiful coffee table (or library book) about the history of the iconic Italian luxury jeweler Bvlgari (or Bulgari), circa 1990s, Italy. Book covers Bulgari's history in c...Category
1990s Italian Books
MaterialsPaper
- Pools by Kelly Klein an Architecture Coffee Table or Library Book, 1992Located in New York, NYThis beautiful book is first edition, 1992; An inspiring coffee table or library book by Kelly Klein, featuring iconic and unique photographs of swimming pools, in all their forms, f...Category
Late 20th Century American Books
MaterialsPaper
- Nature & Animals Posing in Still Life, A European & Italian Coffee Table BookLocated in New York, NYNature Posing the Grand Season of Still Life of Europe and Italy; A large (grand) coffee table or library book, 1977, Milan, Italy. Translation of Title in Italian: Natura In Posa, L...Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Rustic Books
MaterialsPaper
- Bvlgari Bulgari High Jewelry Luxury Coffee Table Book, circa 1990sBy BulgariLocated in New York, NYThis is a beautiful coffee table (or library book for a home) about the history of the iconic Italian luxury jeweler Bvlgari (or Bulgari), circa 1990s, Italy. Book covers Bulgari's history in creating iconic gorgeous jewelry and its connection, globally, to architecture, fashion, entertainment - lifestyle. Gorgeous book. Printed in Italy. First Edition. Book is contained in a well-made decorated slipcase that matches the jacket of the hardcover book. This was the first book ever published on Bulgari, it is a lavishly illustrated exploration of one of Italy's greatest jewelers. With the use of new photographs together with archival pictures the book traces the development of the Bulgari style, which has captivated movie stars and Royalty since its start in Rome in 1884. Title: BVLGARI (BULGARI) Publisher: Leonardo Arte srl, Milan Publish: 1996, First edition Binding: Hard slipcover pocket, perfect-bound, hard cover with four-color process 'dust' jacket. Printing: Printed in Italy. Dimensions: Width: 13.25 in (33.66 cm) x Depth: 12.5 in (31.75 cm) Blue Italian Murano bowl...Category
1990s Italian Books
MaterialsPaper
- Bulgari Between Eternity and History Jewelry Coffee Table or Library BookBy BulgariLocated in New York, NY"Bulgari, Between Eternity and History", Bulgari's jewelry coffee table or library book celebrating Bulgari's 125th Anniversary as an iconic Italian luxury jeweler, "From 1884 To 200...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Books
MaterialsPaper
- Collection Leather Bound Library Book Set ThirteenLocated in Tarry Town, NYCollection of gilt leather bound library book set of thirteen volumes. The works of William Shakespeare / The Cambridge text. Each boo...Category
20th Century Books
MaterialsPaper, Leather
- Collection Leather-Bound Library Book Set / TenLocated in Tarry Town, NYCollection of gilt leather bound library book set of ten volumes. The complete works of George Eliot with photogravire illustrations from new drawing...Category
20th Century European Books
MaterialsLeather, Paper
- Collection Gilt Leather Bound Library Book SetLocated in Tarry Town, NYDecorate your sturdy / Library room with this collection set of gilt leather bound library book set of eighteen volumes. Germany in storm and stress ...Category
Vintage 1910s Books
MaterialsPaper, Leather
$1,890 / set - Collection Gilt Leather Bound Library Book Set / EighteenLocated in Tarry Town, NYCollection of gilt leather bound library book set of eighteen. Army Life In A Black Regiment By Thomas Went Wentworth Higginson "Collector's Library ...Category
Vintage 1980s Books
MaterialsPaper, Leather
- Complete Purdon's Gilt Leather Bound Library Book Collection SetLocated in Tarry Town, NYComplete collection set of gilt leather bound library book set of one hundred twenty nine volumes. PURDON'S Pennsylvania Statutes & Consolidated Statutes Annotated. Copyright 2003 by...Category
Early 2000s Books
MaterialsPaper, Leather
- English Lectern or Book Stand of BrassLocated in Austin, TXA fine English table top lectern, missal or book stand of brass, featuring a reading top with pierced quatrefoils at each corner. The revolving recta...Category
Early 20th Century English Religious Items
MaterialsMetal, Brass