Richard AvedonRichard Avedon Original 1967 poster featuring Ringo Starr - The Beatles1967
1967
About the Item
- Creator:Richard Avedon (1923-2004, American)
- Creation Year:1967
- Dimensions:Height: 26.78 in (68 cm)Width: 18.51 in (47 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:Very good condition.
- Gallery Location:PARIS, FR
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1792214025422
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: PARIS, France
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 14 days of delivery.
- 1920 Original Poster by Henri Villain - Compagnie Algérienne Emprunt NationalLocated in PARIS, FRCrafted in 1920 by the skilled artist Henri Villain, the Compagnie Algérienne Emprunt National poster offers a captivating glimpse into the financial history of the time. Born in 188...Category
1920s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLinen, Paper, Lithograph
- 1971 Original space conquest soviet poster Mars-2 and Mars-3 - Space conquestLocated in PARIS, FRCrafted during the height of the Cold War in 1971, the Soviet poster titled "Encore sur Mars! Vaisseaux spatiaux Mars-2 et Mars 3 en vol" (Still on Mars! Spacecraft Mars-2 and Mars 3...Category
1970s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLinen, Paper
- Gouache by Yvon Taillandier - Urbanisme JaponaisBy Yvon TaillandierLocated in PARIS, FRGouache Yvon Taillandier (1926–2007) was a French painter and lithographer known for his significant contributions to contemporary art. Born in Paris, Taillandier began his artistic...Category
1980s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper, Gouache
- 1948 original political poster "De Gaulle à Moulins"Located in PARIS, FRThe 1948 political poster "De Gaulle à Moulins" is a historical artifact that encapsulates a crucial moment in French political history. Created durin...Category
1940s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsLinen, Paper, Lithograph
- May 1968 poster La police s'affiche aux beaux artsLocated in PARIS, FRThe May 1968 political poster titled "La police s'affiche aux beaux arts, Les beaux arts affichent dans la rue" encapsulates the fervor and social upheaval of the iconic May 1968 pro...Category
1960s Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper, Lithograph
- Circa 1950 Ida Colucci - Vacation village collageBy Ida ColucciLocated in PARIS, FRIda Colucci, a contemporary artist renowned for her mastery in the art of collage, stands at the forefront of a creative revolution that transcends traditional artistic boundaries. T...Category
Mid-20th Century Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper
- "The Football Player, " Woodcut Print on Rice Paper by Leonard BaskinBy Leonard BaskinLocated in Long Island City, NYThis woodcut print was created by American artist Leonard Baskin. Baskin is well known for his somewhat grotesque, intricate, surreal drawings and natural subject matter. This print ...Category
1950s Surrealist Figurative Prints
MaterialsWoodcut, Rice Paper
- “On the Seine, Paris”By Hans FiguraLocated in Southampton, NYOriginal aquatint etching of working river barges on the Seine in Paris, France. A horse drawn cart is seen loading or unloading product. Circa 1900. Si...Category
Early 1900s Academic Landscape Prints
MaterialsArchival Paper, Aquatint
- Andy Warhol - Halston fragrance and cosmetics Advertising Campaign PosterBy Andy WarholLocated in London, GBPaper Size: 23 x 28.75 inches Edition Size Unknown Near Mint, very light signs of handling Original Serigraph poster designed for an in-store advertising campaign printed in 1982. ...Category
1980s American Modern Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper
- Andy Warhol - Halston Men's Wear Advertising Campaign PosterBy Andy WarholLocated in London, GBPaper Size: 23 x 28.75 inches Edition Size Unknown Near Mint, very light signs of handling Original Serigraph poster designed for an in-store advertising campaign printed in 1982. ...Category
1980s American Modern Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper
- Andy Warhol - Halston Women's accessories Advertising Campaign PosterBy Andy WarholLocated in London, GBPaper Size: 23 x 28.75 inches Edition Size Unknown Near Mint, very light signs of handling Original Serigraph poster designed for an in-store advertising campaign printed in 1982. ...Category
1980s American Modern Prints and Multiples
MaterialsPaper
- Pink Lake, square abstract monoprintBy Rachel BurgessLocated in New York, NYThe coastal landscapes of Maine have been the main source of inspiration for Rachel Burgess for many years. Burgess’s ongoing fascination with how land meets water— along rivers, lak...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Prints
MaterialsMonoprint, Paper, Monotype