Avedon

Richard Avedon
Steven O'Neill, fourteen-year-old, Miles City, Montana
1984
gelatin silver print
Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas

 

Richard Avedon
Freida Kleinsasser, thirteen-year-old,
Hutterite Colony, Harlowton, Montana
1983
gelatin silver print
Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Richard Avedon
Clarence Lippard, drifter, Interstate 80, Sparks, Nevada
1983
gelatin silver print
Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Richard Avedon
Vivian Richardson and her granddaughter Heide Zacher,
Deadwood, South Dakota
1982
gelatin silver print
Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Richard Avedon
Richard Wheatcroft, rancher, Jordan, Montana
1981
gelatin silver print
Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Richard Avedon
Peter Bunnell
(writer on photography)
1977
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Richard Avedon
Jasper Johns
(painter)
1976
gelatin silver print
Saint Louis Art Museum

Richard Avedon
Robert Frank, Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia
(photographer)
1975
gelatin silver print
Milwaukee Art Museum

Richard Avedon
Oscar Levant, pianist, Beverly Hills California
1972
gelatin silver print
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Richard Avedon
Janis Joplin
(rock star)
1969
gelatin silver print
Dallas Museum of Art

Richard Avedon
Who has a better right to oppose the War?
1969
offset-lithograph (poster)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Richard Avedon
Penelope Tree, New York Studio
1967
gelatin silver print
(published in Vogue)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Richard Avedon
The Beatles
1967
offset-lithograph (poster)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Richard Avedon
The Beatles - John Lennon
1967
offset-lithograph (poster)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Richard Avedon
The Beatles - Paul McCartney
1967
offset-lithograph (poster)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Richard Avedon
The Beatles - George Harrison
1967
offset-lithograph (poster)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Richard Avedon
The Beatles - Ringo Starr
1967
offset-lithograph (poster)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Richard Avedon
The Generals of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Mayflower Hotel, Washington DC
1963
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Richard Avedon
Observations
1959
offset-print (book jacket)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Richard Avedon
Truman Capote and the Gish Sisters
ca. 1955
gelatin silver print
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Richard Avedon
Escudero the Granadian Grandee of Flamenco
1955
gelatin silver print
Princeton University Art Museum

Richard Avedon
Sunny Harnett at the Casino
(gown by Madame Grès)
1954
gelatin silver print
(published in Harper's Bazaar)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Richard Avedon
Robert Flaherty, theatrical director, New York City
1951
gelatin silver print
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Richard Avedon
Dorian Leigh with Bicycle Racer, Champs-Élysées
(fashions by Christian Dior)
1949
gelatin silver print
(published in Harper's Bazaar)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Richard Avedon
Elise Daniels with Street Performers, Le Marais
(fashions by Cristóbal Balenciaga)
1948
gelatin silver print
(published in Harper's Bazaar)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Aboriginal Landscape

You're stepping on your father, my mother said,

and indeed I was standing exactly in the center

of a bed of grass, mown so neatly it could have been

my father's grave, although there was no stone saying so.

You're stepping on your father, she repeated,

louder this time, which began to be strange to me,

since she was dead herself, even the doctor had admitted it.

I moved slightly to the side, to where

my father ended and my mother began.

The cemetery was silent. Wind blew through the trees;

I could hear, very faintly, sounds of weeping several rows away,

and beyond that, a dog wailing.

At length these sounds abated. It crossed my mind

I had no memory of being driven here,

to what now seemed a cemetery, though it could have been

a cemetery in my mind only; perhaps it was a park, or if not a park,

a garden or bower, perfumed, I now realized with the scent of roses –

douceur de vivre filling the air, the sweetness of living,

as the saying goes. At some point, 

it occurred to me I was alone.

Where had the others gone,

my cousin and sister, Caitlin and Abigail?

By now the light was fading. Where was the car

waiting to take us home?

I then began seeking for some alternative. I felt

an impatience growing in me, approaching, I would say, anxiety.

Finally, in the distance, I made out a small train,

stopped, it seemed, behind some foliage, the conductor

lingering against a doorframe, smoking a cigarette.

Do not forget me, I cried, running now

over many plots, many mothers and fathers –

Do not forget me, I cried, when at last I reached him.

Madam, he said, pointing to the tracks, 

surely you realize this is the end, the tracks do not go farther.

His words were harsh, and yet his eyes were kind;

this encouraged me to press my case harder.

But they go back, I said, and I remarked

their sturdiness, as though they had many such returns ahead of them.

You know, he said, our work is difficult: we confront

much sorrow and disappointment.

He gazed at me with increasing frankness.

I was like you once, he added, in love with turbulence.

Now I spoke as to an old friend:

What of you, I said, since he was free to leave,

have you no wish to go home,

to see the city again?

This is my home, he said.

The city – the city is where I disappear.

– Louise Glück (2014)