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.
RICHARD AVEDON - CENTER FOR CREATIVE IMAGING
By Richard Avedon
Located in Portland, ME
Avedon, Richard. RICHARD AVEDON - CENTER FOR CREATIVE IMAGING. Poster, 1991. Signed in ink by Avedon. Captioned " Gordon Stevenson, drifter Interstate 90 Butte Montana...
Offset
$2,000
H 32 in W 24 in
Jean-Michel Basquiat 1984 poster, hand signed and numbered by Richard Corman
By Richard Corman
Located in New York, NY
Richard Corman Jean-Michel Basquiat 1984 (Red), 2020 Offset lithograph poster on color archival pigment paper Signed and numbered 2/100 by Richard Corman in silver sharpie on the fro...
Archival Paper, Lithograph, Offset
$2,800
H 17.25 in W 15 in D 1.5 in
Photographic print, hand signed and inscribed by Helen Frankenthaler, framed
By Helen Frankenthaler
Located in New York, NY
Helen Frankenthaler Hand signed and inscribed photograph, ca. 1987 Photograph printed on offset lithograph Hand signed and inscribed by Helen Frankenthaler on the front Frame Include...
Lithograph, Offset
$1,800
H 19 in W 14.25 in D 3.1 in
Dennis Hopper Photographs 1961-1967 Limited Edition Hand Signed Monograph in box
By Dennis Hopper
Located in New York, NY
Dennis Hopper Photographs 1961 - 1967 (Limited Edition Hand Signed), 2009 Hardcover Book in Clamshell Box. Hand Signed and numbered 1327/1500 Hand signed by Dennis Hopper on the colophon page. 19 × 14 1/4 × 3 1/10 inches This is the limited edition (signed and numbered) collector's edition, not to be confused with the later mass market edition. Hand signed, hardcover book in a clamshell box from an edition of 1500. 17.3 x 13 inches (book) 19 x 14 1/4 inches (box) 546 pages Accompanied by Certificate of Guarantee issued by Alpha 137 Gallery During the 1960s, Dennis Hopper (1936–2010) carried a camera everywhere—on film sets and locations, at parties, in diners, bars and galleries, driving on freeways, and walking in political marches. He photographed movie idols, pop stars, writers, artists, girlfriends, and complete strangers. Along the way he captured some of the most intriguing moments of his generation with a keen and intuitive eye. From a selection of photographs compiled by Hopper and gallerist Tony Shafrazi—more than a third of them previously unpublished—this Collector’s Edition distills the essence of Hopper’s prodigious photographic career, documenting the likes of Tina Turner in the studio, Andy Warhol at his first West Coast show, Paul Newman on set, and Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. In many ways this work is photography as film, a poignant narrative expressed through a series of stark images—early shots of Tijuana bullfights, LA happenings, and urban street scenes show an experimental freedom that would translate into the vivid cinematic imagery of Easy Rider and beyond. The images are accompanied by introductory essays from Tony Shafrazi and legendary West Coast art pioneer Walter Hopps, as well as an extensive biography by journalist Jessica Hundley. With excerpts from Victor Bockris’s interviews of Hopper’s famous subjects, friends, and family, this is an unprecedented exploration of the life and mind of one of America’s most fascinating personalities. CONTRIBUTORS The photographer Dennis Hopper (1936–2010) was an acclaimed artist, actor, screenwriter, and director who first impressed audiences with his performances in Rebel Without A Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). He changed the face of American cinema with Easy Rider (1969), which he cowrote, directed, and starred in. Hopper went on to act in hundreds of memorable films and television shows, including Apocalypse Now (1979), Blue Velvet (1986), Hoosiers (1986), True Romance (1993), Basquiat (1997), Elegy (2008), and the TV series Crash (2008). Hopper began painting as a child and started taking photos in 1961, after his then wife Brooke Hayward gave him a 35 mm Nikon camera for his birthday. His paintings and photography have been exhibited all over the world, including the recent retrospective, “Dennis Hopper and the New Hollywood” in Paris. Dennis Hopper passed away May 29, 2010, in Venice, CA. The contributing authors An Englishman who moved to New York in 1973 and became connected to Andy Warhol, the Factory, and Interview, Victor Bockris has written books on Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, Keith Richards, William S. Burroughs, Patti Smith, and Muhammad Ali. Walter Hopps (1933–2005) was one of the premier curators of 20th-century art. Cofounder of Los Angeles’s Ferus Gallery and director of the Pasadena Museum of Art, he was responsible for the first retrospectives of Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell, and Marcel Duchamp. A key advocate of American Pop art, his 1962 survey “New Painting of Common Objects” was the first of its kind. After directing the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, he went on to build the Menil Collection museum in Houston and became its founding director in 1987. A filmmaker and frequently published art, music, and film journalist, Jessica Hundley has directed several documentaries and recently completed her second book, a biography of country-rock legend Gram Parsons...
Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset
$15,000
H 44 in W 44 in
Andy Warhol and His Corsets at the Fourth Factory, New York, 1986
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Andy Warhol and his corsets at the fourth factory, New York, 1986 "Andy had to wear corsets ever after he was shot in the abdomen. The ever-devoted Brigid "Polk" Berlin dyed them f...
Archival Pigment
$165Sale Price|40% Off
H 31.5 in W 23.63 in D 0.04 in
Point-Aven - Vintage Offset Print by Michel Tersiquel - 1972
Located in Roma, IT
Point-Aven is a vintage poster realized by Michel Tersiquel in 1972. Black and white colored offset print. The artwork represented a phothograph po...
Offset
$1,500Sale Price|53% Off
H 30.25 in W 26.25 in D 1.25 in
“Shari Belafonte” Ltd Hand-Signed Gelatin Silver Print by Greg Gorman, Framed
By Greg Gorman
Located in Encino, CA
"Shari Belafonte," an original Silver Gelatin Print by photographer Greg Gorman, is a piece for the true collector. Impressively vivid emotion and detail projects from the work, highlighting Gorman's exceptional talent at capturing the essence of his subjects. Both Gorman's technical talent as a photographer and his choreography pair perfectly. This piece of art would make a great addition to an art collection and enhance most any home, perfect for those who have an affinity for black and white photography, portraits, or figurative works. This work is #1 of the small edition size of 25. Greg Gorman is one of the most well-known and sought-after celebrity photographers, having photographed countless stars, such as Al Pacino, Mark Wahlberg...
Silver Gelatin
Untitled, Motorcycle Bondage, San Francisco.
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Fisher Ross. Untitled, Image #5, ca. 1975-80. Offset print postcard format. 4.5 x 6.5 inches; 12 x 15 inches framed. Excellent condition. Photographs fr...
Offset
$880
H 12 in W 10.5 in D 1.75 in
Monograph: The Complete Paintings (Hand signed, inscribed by Philip Pearlstein)
By Philip Pearlstein
Located in New York, NY
Philip Pearlstein The Complete Paintings, 1984 Hardback monograph with dust jacket Hand signed, dated and inscribed to Nadine by Philip Pearlstein 12 × 10 1/2 × 1 3/4 inches This i...
Paper, Ink, Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset
Basquiat Vrej Baghoomian 1988 (Basquiat portrait with Jack Kerouac)
Located in NEW YORK, NY
1980s Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibition Poster: Basquiat at Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York: April - June 1988: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s exhib...
Offset, Lithograph
$179
H 5.52 in W 3.55 in D 0.04 in
Autographed Portrait of Lilo Pulver and Helmut Schmid - 1950's
Located in Roma, IT
Autographed portrait of Lilo Pulver and Helmut Schmid is a b/w postcard reproducing the photographic portrait of the Austrian actors, famous during the German cinema during the Fifti...
Offset
Nan Goldin Supreme set of 2 skateboard decks (Nan Goldin Supreme)
By Nan Goldin
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Nan Goldin Supreme Skateboard Decks, 2018 (set of 2): – Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a taxi, (NYC 1991) – Nan as a Dominatrix (Cambridge MA 1978) Set of 2 limited edition Nan Goldin ...
Wood, Offset
$1,646
H 40 in W 60 in D 0.1 in
'Emergence' 40x60" Limited Edition Archival Photograph, Signed, Woman Dancer
By Sophia Milligan
Located in Penzance, GB
'Emergence' Limited edition archival photograph. Unframed, hand signed and numbered ________________________________ From your cocoon my darling, Your wings are emerging: Delicate ...
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Giclée, Archival Pigment
"Friends in Deed"
By Richard Avedon
Located in Astoria, NY
Richard Avedon (American, 1923-2004), "Friends in Deed", Gelatin Silver Print, 1999, signed in ink and dated lower right, wood frame. Image: 9.75" H x 7.75" W; frame: 18" H x 15.5" W...
Silver Gelatin
1993 Richard Avedon 'An Autobiography' Book
By Richard Avedon
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Paper Size: 14.25 x 11.5 inches ( 36.195 x 29.21 cm ) Image Size: 14.25 x 11.5 inches ( 36.195 x 29.21 cm ) Framed: NoCondition: A-: Near Mint, very light signs of handling Addition...
Offset
Sold
H 12.5 in W 15.25 in D 3.25 in
AVEDON, Richard. An Autobiography. WITH: Evidence 1944 - 1994. 2 Volumes
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
AVEDON, Richard. An Autobiography. WITH: Evidence 1944 - 1994. 2 Volumes, with two original hand-stamped engraver's proofs. Folio, in publisher's cloth folding box. New York: Random House, 1994. This boxed set was issued to accompany the celebrated 1994 Avedon retrospective at the Whitney Museum. It contains engraver's proofs of two Avedon photographs...