richard avedon - in the american west

[enochRoot]

i just saw a richard avedon exhibit at the local museum last week. it was the "in the american west" series. i'm sure most of you have seen the photos, but have you seen the actual prints?! absolutely amazing. larger than life size prints that are so captivating at any distance. and a LOT of them (78 i believe). it was quite moving. i loved walking around the space. i could stand back in the middle of the room, and take in all these huge faces looking back at me at once. or i could stand closer...and look intently at one print. but further...i could walk right up to it, and view the detail from 10 inches away. they were just stunning. you could not even see the seams where the paper was glued together to reach the needed width unless you were right upon it. whoever printed these was a master artisan in his own right. and naturally the photos themselves are amazing.

i was surprised that he "only" used an 8x10. the detail on these enlargements was ridiculous! all my wife and i could think was "you cannot do this with digital". this isn't meant to be a filim vs. digital thing at all. i'm just saying:

a: if this exhibit comes to your town...make sure you see it

b: i honestly think film (at least as a fine art medium) will stick around for a long while (for purposes such as this)

his view of this is pretty interesting too. i don't read tons of photographic critique or theory or anything. i prefer learing from the images, and discussing them with friends. but avedon's take on this is pretty interesting:

forward to "in the american west"

 

[Todd.Hanz]

Lucky Dog 🙂, I was just reading the book the other day on how he made this series, outstanding work. I wish I could see the exhibit too.

Todd

 

[enochRoot]

it was organized in texas, but started off there, and is now on its way. maybe it will head back your way before it disappears! or you can make the trek to tuscon 😀

avedon exhibit info

i love the columbus museum of art further because is free on sundays, so that is when we go. they have some great collections come through too!

 

[Todd.Hanz]

BTW, here is an interactive site, it has several of the people who appear in the series recalling thier thoughts on the pics (with audio): http://www.dfw.com/multimedia/dfw/news/archive/avedon/index.html#preload

Be sure and click on the audio and also on the next buttons to see them as they appear today.

Todd

 

[John Rountree]

I show the Avedon video to my photo histroy students every year. It is indeed one of the best photo videos we have in the whole library. It is really great to hear Avedon talk about his work and his creativity. Far more insightful than "I just press the button." Watching that video has given me a much, much deeper and stronger appreciation for his work... and his genius.

 

[enochRoot]

i'll have to check that out! my wife has always been a big fan of his, but i never paid too much attention to his work. i always liked what i saw (and saw most of his "famous" shots), but this show really gave me a new appreciation of him. and even reading that little forwarrd he did to this series. so the dvd should be enlightening! thanks for the suggestion.

and thanks todd for that link!!

 

[impact07]

I have an aquaintance who worked for Avedon as his assitance for a few years before his death. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when he told me the Hassy I was fiddling with was "Dick's" 😱

I absolutely love his work, and this series in particular is tremendous. I have the book, but can't wait for a chance to see this show.

 

[enochRoot]

don't drop it! 😉

i was surprised to see the show was only hitting 3 or 4 museums. i guess i'm luckier than i know! they have a lot of great work come through, but this definitely had the most impact on me of anything i've seen there over the years. you just can't ignore it because of the scale. and as i mentioned...one of my favorite things was standing more toward the middle of a given section and take a lot of them in at once.