Word: avedon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...worst of these little biographies cannot detract from these fine portraits of our finest women. The final page of Life's "Remarkable Women," an Avedon shot of Marian Anderson, is worth the two dollar price alone. A handsome woman of talent and strength sings to the camera, her thick black hair flying in the wind, her nose flaring in effort, her eyes closed in ecstasy. And that is all you need to know...
...addition, several of TIME's 1975 covers have already been honored. Art Directions magazine singled out Jim Sharpe's painting of Chou En-lai (Feb. 3) and Richard Avedon's photograph of Cher (March 17). It also cited the editorial design of TIME's special 1776 issue. Art Director David Merrill was honored by The One Show, published by the Art Directors Club, for his design of a 1974 cover on Middle East massacres...
Dark Edges. Like Cartier-Bresson, Avedon gives us everything he and the lens record, including the dark edges of the film itself. This sharp edge forces the eye inward to the details effaces and nuances of expression. Avedon's pictures are lean, made with soft daylight and bouncelight against a white, seamless background. They are also stark because of the moment that Avedon tries to capture, as in the 1955 picture of a youthful Truman Capote. He reads the eyes of his subjects, waiting for that second when they reveal the facet of character he wants: he allows...
This show is not Avedon under full throttle. It is in black and white only (although in his advertising and fashion work he is a master of color). The multi-image strips from the Manhattan Project Co.'s play Alice in Wonderland that greet visitors at the gallery entrance are mostly weak pictures. And Avedon, one of the keen observers of the sexual revolution in America, only toys with what he could have said on the subject...
Despite such reservations, the new, mature Avedon seen in this show remains extraordinary. One of his colleagues once said that Avedon was the white mechanical rabbit that all other photographers tried to catch but never did. The rabbit is out on the track again, and he is still ahead of the rest of the field. John Durniak