Photography once demanded chemistry, expensive film stocks, and deliberate intent. A shutter click was a measured commitment rather than a digital reflex.
Those mechanics and the towering career of master lensman Richard Avedon anchor Avedon, a new documentary directed by Ron Howard and streaming on Netflix, latimes.com reported.
From Paris Fashion to American Portraits
Avedon’s career stretched from 1947—when Harper’s Bazaar dispatched a twenty-something photographer to Paris—until his death in 2004 while on assignment in San Antonio for The New Yorker, latimes.com reported.
Tina Brown, the editor who brought him onto the magazine, noted that Dick was a great magazine man, according to latimes.com. James Martin, executive director of the Richard Avedon Foundation, calculated that the photographer accumulated about 16,000 sittings over decades of work.
Public familiarity often centers on iconic frames like his 1955 Dovima with Elephants or psychedelic portraits of the Beatles, latimes.com reported. Gallerist Larry Gagosian noted that a print of Dovima with Elephants sold for $2 million, according to latimes.com.
Stripping Away the Flattery
Avedon revolutionized fashion photography by injecting motion and implied narrative into a traditionally static medium. He later shifted to portraiture, systematically removing flattery and insisting on the title of artist despite initial industry resistance.
Subjects were frequently placed against a stark white background using an 8×10 camera to eliminate distractions and study facial geography. He took that portable backdrop into the field, traveling to Saigon in 1971 and executing the controversial project later published as In the American West.
In his new documentary 'Avedon,' director Ron Howard traces the vivid legacy of the influential photographer Richard Avedon, which premieres November 11 on Netflix. “The subjects he worked with on the commercial side of his career were dazzling and beautiful, and he was so…”
I’ve been called a cruel manipulator, existential hero and to top it off, agent of death.
That observation came from Avedon himself, whose career encompassed everything from celebrity frames of Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton to a stark suite of pictures documenting his dying father, latimes.com reported.
Inside Howard’s Sleek Chronicle
Howard’s documentary features commentary from Avedon’s son John, photographer Joel Meyerowitz, Isabella Rossellini, Lauren Hutton, Penelope Tree, Twiggy Lawson, and Twyla Tharp, latimes.com reported. Writers Hilton Als, Adam Gopnik, and John Lahr also contribute insights to the fast-moving project.
The film mirrors the energetic, dancing style Avedon maintained on set, where he would socialize for hours before capturing his subjects on paper in a final, concentrated burst, latimes.com reported.
Avedon once said that his massive 1993 monograph, Autobiography, functioned as a life story told through the faces of others, latimes.com reported.
'Avedon' Review: Ron Howard's Thrilling Documentary About Richard Avedon, the Great Photographer Who Turned Head-On Portraits Into an Art Form https://t.co/0UYItcX7Z1
