On sunday in amsterdam I went to see the Richard Avedon exhibition at The Amsterdam Photography Museum (FOAM), which had over 200 of his photographs 1946-2004. It opened with his fashion photography in post war Paris, which i completely loved - beautifully statuesque girls wearing sculpted, artful creations by Madame Gres, Dior, and Jacques Fath - you could feel his electric enthusiasm for re-energising couture's spirit. his playfulness and daring is at the same time so graceful. looking at his images is like rolling really rich, expensive chocolate round your mouth. The exhibition then moved on to his portraits of an impressively diverse array of poets, politicians, murderers, rock stars, actors and average Joes, but my favourite was 'The Family', The American power elite of 1976, featuring heads of state, union leaders, bankers, media - people like George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Regan etc. anyway, RA didn't want his impressions or biases to be conveyed, so he gave virtually no direction and the 50 or so portraits (maybe more, i'm terrible at judging these things) all hanging on a wall next to one another are so revealing about the individuals' characters - just in that one shot - whether they chose to smile, scowl intensely, stand stifly, have their arms folded, how they chose to wear their clothes, the stance they struck up - it's a brave piece of work, but one that's incredibly powerful. it's so raw somehow - all these people putting on such a front. Avedon's portraits of his father proir to his death from cancer were also very moving. they reminded me of the ones Annie Leibovitz took of her father when he was sick, and of her mother - both were reluctant subjects too, and also had a completely different impression of themselves and the way they wanted to be portrayed from their photographer children. Avedon's father wanted to come across as sagacious and stern, while Avedon saw him as impatient, vibrant and edgy, but very much alive with life. the result is an amalgamation of the two and you can see how the two views grew in the minds of the two men. Avedon said "my sense of what's beautiful is very different to his". i like that. it's so true of everyone's view of themselves in relation to those they love, and vice versa. you can never really see or understand how people see you. and people can never really see or understand how amazing you think they are.
Monday 16 February 2009
Richard Avedon
On sunday in amsterdam I went to see the Richard Avedon exhibition at The Amsterdam Photography Museum (FOAM), which had over 200 of his photographs 1946-2004. It opened with his fashion photography in post war Paris, which i completely loved - beautifully statuesque girls wearing sculpted, artful creations by Madame Gres, Dior, and Jacques Fath - you could feel his electric enthusiasm for re-energising couture's spirit. his playfulness and daring is at the same time so graceful. looking at his images is like rolling really rich, expensive chocolate round your mouth. The exhibition then moved on to his portraits of an impressively diverse array of poets, politicians, murderers, rock stars, actors and average Joes, but my favourite was 'The Family', The American power elite of 1976, featuring heads of state, union leaders, bankers, media - people like George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Ronald Regan etc. anyway, RA didn't want his impressions or biases to be conveyed, so he gave virtually no direction and the 50 or so portraits (maybe more, i'm terrible at judging these things) all hanging on a wall next to one another are so revealing about the individuals' characters - just in that one shot - whether they chose to smile, scowl intensely, stand stifly, have their arms folded, how they chose to wear their clothes, the stance they struck up - it's a brave piece of work, but one that's incredibly powerful. it's so raw somehow - all these people putting on such a front. Avedon's portraits of his father proir to his death from cancer were also very moving. they reminded me of the ones Annie Leibovitz took of her father when he was sick, and of her mother - both were reluctant subjects too, and also had a completely different impression of themselves and the way they wanted to be portrayed from their photographer children. Avedon's father wanted to come across as sagacious and stern, while Avedon saw him as impatient, vibrant and edgy, but very much alive with life. the result is an amalgamation of the two and you can see how the two views grew in the minds of the two men. Avedon said "my sense of what's beautiful is very different to his". i like that. it's so true of everyone's view of themselves in relation to those they love, and vice versa. you can never really see or understand how people see you. and people can never really see or understand how amazing you think they are.
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