Thesis & Background

 

In my final project I am looking to explore how photographer Richard Avedon, as a Jewish photographer, breaks through/into the world of fashion photography and how his background influences his work. Throughout my project I will be focusing on the theme of celebrity photography / portraiture and how he became such a success while so many others didn’t.

Born on May 15, 1923, Avedon was fascinated with both poetry and photography. After photography prevailed he studied at the US Merchant Marines where he shot ID cards and The New School. It is said by Josh Perelman that Avedon’s Jewish childhood and background gave him an affinity for his photography and it helped to shape the choices that he made as an artist.

His break through into fashion came about naturally with both his parents in the industry. Combining his love of photography and his affinity for the fashion industry it is no surprise that Avedon felt comfortable pushing the boundaries and exploring fashion photography of the time. Avedon has a specific quality to his work that enables the viewer to truly see the subject not only as art, but as a human. They act as capsules of history – capturing not only the people but the time period. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Learn More About Avedon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPKa5fL58RA

 

 

 

Methodology

Avedon as a photographer is known as one of the greatest portraitures of all time. He was able to capture a feeling through his photos which often left people asking “how?!”. It is said that Avedon was an extremely energetic and charismatic person throughout the entirety of his career leaving supermodels in awe up until his 70s! His personality enabled him to connect with his subjects in a way that many other photographers could not. He would make them feel comfortable and excited making the shoot fun. One of his methods was to work very closely with talented assistants who knew how he moved and worked to help him achieve the end result he was looking for. One such example of this is his simplistic lighting set up. He would have one assistant hold a singular strobe light with an umbrella on it as the main source and a few other hold reflectors beneath the subject and a light behind them. This enabled him to get a clear, well lit shot without the clutter.

Additionally, something Avedon was known to do was to work closely with retouchers. He would sometimes use a face from one negative and a body from another to achieve the best image he possibly could. He knew that retouching an image was your friend and did not shy away from the possibilities of the dark room. If you look at some of his working prints you can see the map he drew for himself on how to dodge and burn the image. 

Lastly, one of his most prized methods was a sort of “mind game” with the subject. He lived by the mantra that your pictures do not have to please your subject – of course when commissioned it is a different story – but he strove to achieve “ugly” or “real” pictures of people. A famous anecdote is when he used this method while shooting the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. While taking photos of them in Paris the relatively antisemitic Duke and Duchess did not necessarily warm up to the Jewish Avedon. He wanted to take a “real” reaction from them and so knowing that they were dog people he told them – while pulling back the shutter – that his dog had just gotten run over. The reaction of utter fear, sadness, and disgust of this horrid event gave Avedon the image of realness he was looking for. In actuality, I’m not sure if Avedon even had a dog – but he now had a really good photo. 

 

How will I embody Richard Avedon?
Being a photography minor I have had a lot of experience shooting in the “style” of different photographers. One of the ways that I have tried to mimic Avedon’s methods was through using a large format camera and a relatively simple background to take portraits. What I recognized through this experience was how critical it is to connect with your subject to achieve THE photo. How you need to know what you want in mind and plan for it. It was incredible to have this opportunity and taught me a lot about how Avedon worked.

 

Photos & Analysis

Image Comparison:

Connection&Inspiration

Avedon in this image captured movement and expression through a sort of minimalist model. I wanted to try and find a way to mimic this energy with adding elements of my own personality.

 

 

The process of taking this picture in the style of Avedon consisted of trying to mimic the lighting that he uses in the image. You can tell that the light is not the lighting that a glamour shot would be with both studio lights behind the camera, but instead more of an angled approach due to the model’s shadow on the ground. By noticing this detail, I set up the lighting with one main light source on the left side of the model and a fill behind the camera to give more of a starker lit image.

Additionally, a major component of Avedon’s work in general was his editing post photoshoot while printing the images. While I do not necessarily know what the editing process for this specific image was, I could assume that he definitely dodged and burned to emphasize the contrast. I tried to interpret this in my own way. While I was in the darkroom after I shot the image and I did dodge and burn, I also rotated it. I think something that I admire the most about Avedon is his ability to see photos for more than what they are. By rotating my picture I feel as if I gave it a new life and new meaning – a very Avedonesque quality.

[my images]

What did these images teach me? How was I challenged?

I think from taking these images I learned a lot about how incredible Avedon was when creating images and how he engaged with his subjects. I have been doing a lot of research recently about photography and something that I have recognized – both through my research and in taking photos – is while a camera can be an excellent tool to capture personality, it can also cause many people to lose their personalities. People tend to get tense and afraid of how the camera will capture them. Trying to utilize Avedon’s techniques I tried to get my subjects to embody a personality. Whether it was theirs or easier for them to try and be someone else I wanted them to feel comfortable in front of the camera to achieve more than just “a pretty picture”.

[avedon’s images]

Why these images?

If you look at the order that these images are in and the order that my images are in you will see the correlation and inspiration between the two. The inspiration from Avedon and translation of that in my own images.

[a closer look]

1.

Richard Avedon ©

2.

                                                                                    Richard Avedon ©

3.

Richard Avedon ©

4.

Richard Avedon ©

5.

Richard Avedon ©

6.

Richard Avedon ©

7.

Richard Avedon ©

8.

Richard Avedon ©

9.

Richard Avedon ©

 

Further insight into the experience

After taking my own photos and looking back at Avedon’s I have a real appreciation for his ability to capture personality and clarity. In utilizing film cameras – specifically 35mm and large format – clarity and crispness is sometimes taken for granted. I am so used to my phone or my DSLR camera automatically focusing in on the subject. Something beautiful about working with a film camera is that it does not automatically focus. By physically having to do this you are becoming closer to the subject. You become zoned in with the image and the vision, but this also takes more time and sometimes you can lose the shot.

I began to appreciate Avedon’s ability to be speedy and thoughtful. To focus in and gain the crisp image without losing the shot or the expression. With large format especially, there is an element of mystery when taking the pictures because a lot of the time you don’t have a mirror behind the lens so the entire image is flipped. Seeing what Avedon was able to create was not only creative success, but also technical success.

Throughout the process my approach changed slightly in the fact of how I acted towards the subjects. I think something so special about Avedon was his personality. He was not only able to capture an expression and emotion, but it became clear that this was a reflection of his personality behind the camera. If I wanted people to become comfortable in front of me I was going to have to make them comfortable. Create an environment that was not intimidating. Even my most comfortable and loud subjects would freeze when they got in front of the lens. I would have to coach them – open up with a conversation make them almost become not afraid of the camera.

It is funny because so many people love to have pictures of themselves, but are afraid of actually getting their picture taken. They are afraid that the camera is going to highlight their insecurities or represent them in an unflattering way. That fear – in so many subjects is crippling. The ability to open someone’s mind to be able to accept whatever image will be taken of them is special. To potentially get an unflattering expression, but have such beauty in an image that it does not even matter is the true talent of Avedon. The beauty and meaning of the picture outweighed the potential ugliness.

 

 

Conclusion

After taking pictures in Avedon’s style I most definitely came to understand him differently. There is a certain quirkiness present in his pictures and a spark that is almost impossible to be replicated. His “jewish eye” is not necessarily captured specifically through Jewish items being present in his images, but through how he captures his subjects. He is able to engage with his subjects and yet remain an outsider. Throughout class we repeatedly discuss how an essential element of the Jewish Eye is being an outsider.

 

Additionally, something I found to be interesting after studying Jewish photographers more and looking more closely at Avedon is that a lot of his pictures can be kind of uncomfortable to look at even though beautiful. He does not shy away from finding the beauty in the ugly. I think this is one of the reasons why he became so successful in the fashion industry. He was able to make beautiful images through untraditional perspectives. Avedon, essentially, redefined beauty.

 

Through doing this project in the 21st century while taking a picture is as easy as using our smart phone, it gave me new insight into photographers in the 20th century. There is so much more that makes a great photo and one that people want to talk about aside from the physical image. It takes vision. It takes charisma. It takes energy. It takes planning. The image should be a testament of everything occurring off camera. It should be a peep hole into a world and if it does not encourage you to want to explore what was occurring in that very moment, then it most likely isn’t that great of an image. Each one of Avedon’s images – while so vastly different – forces the viewer to think and almost want to have been there while the image was taken. It makes us think, what was happing outside of the lens that created something so beautiful.

 

“My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.” – Richard Avedon

Sources: List of all your sources with hyperlinks. Be sure to separate photo sources from written research sources.

Information:

• https://www.onportraits.com/richard-avedon-portrait-photographer-lessons/
• https://www.coursehero.com/lit/On-Photography/the-heroism-of-vision-summary/
• https://www.biography.com/artist/richard-avedon
• https://www.jewishexponent.com/2015/04/08/a-developing-story-on-avedon/
• https://viola.bz/innovative-photographer-richard-avedon/
• https://www.slrlounge.com/how-to-photograph-like-richard-avedon/

Photos:

• https://www.onportraits.com/richard-avedon-portrait-photographer-lessons/
• Avedon, R. (1993). An autobiography. New York: Random House, Inc.

Videos:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPKa5fL58RA

 

Feedback from along the way (moved to the bottom because I wasn’t sure if I should delete or keep it)

Samantha,

It’s a start and I’m waiting for the update. A few pointers going forward:

incorporate the images into the text

cite sources with links (e.g. Perlman)

write short paragraphs, not long ones

I will be interested to see what you decide to do once you have the book.

DDM

Samantha,

It’s great that you have experience as photography minor and have worked with a variety of cameras and also “in the style of” technique. I am glad that you have this background because it isn’t easy following Avedon’s approach.

DDM

Samantha,

Understood that it is still a work in progress. I hope that you can now upload your photographs because it is hard to see what you’re saying without the images. Your discussion of the challenges of photographing with large format camera is excellent. Looking forward to seeing the photos.

DDM

Samantha,

It would be great if you could connect your reflections on photography and on Avedon and your own efforts to take portraits with a discussion of at least one of your own photographs. That is part of the analysis, to move from the general discussion to a specific one that looks critically at what you did and what you were aiming to do by examining at least one photograph that you took. Also, please select a few of your photographs to put into a slideshow and a few of Avedon’s to go into a slideshow. The two slideshows should be in dialogue.

DDM

Samantha,

Now your project really comes together, since you’ve connected your photographs with Avedon’s photographs and discussed at least one of them in detail. I think that what you write about Avedon as a Jewish photographer is important, especially the kind of discomfort his photographs produce. There is a voyeuristic quality to them that makes one want to look but also uncomfortable with that desire and what one sees. Nice insight about how Avedon redefined beauty.

When you do revisions for the final project, please be sure to identify Avedon’s photographs.

DDM