BOSTON, MA.- Richard Avedon (1923-2004) was the man who brought fashion photography to life. Instead of perpetuating static images of human mannequins posing stiffly in magazines,
Avedon depicted his models as real women whose energy and exuberance complemented their modern lifestyles.
Savvy members of the ARTKABINETT social network of fine arts collectors have always followed his fashionable photos!
Considered one of the great image-makers of the 20th century, he redefined fashion photography and his lasting contributions are explored in the traveling exhibition Avedon Fashion 19440, a major retrospective devoted exclusively to his work in this medium.
On view in the Foster Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), from August 10, 2010, through January 17, 2011, the exhibition highlights approximately 140 objects, including photographs, magazines, engraversints, and contact sheets that span almost six decades of his successful career.
Avedon Fashion 19440 examines Avedon's years as a photographer who helped shape the image of the fashionable woman, drawing from thousands of pictures he took as staff photographer for Harperís Bazaar and Vogue. It unfolds by decade, with the greatest emphasis on the classic work from the 1950s and 1960s, when Avedonís distinct vision of the ideal American woman revolutionized magazine photography.
Richard Avedon was one of the greatest photographers of all time, who forever transformed the way we look at fashion. The MFA is delighted to be able to showcase his supremely stylish and important work,id Malcolm Rogers, Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The exhibition begins with elegant, romantic, and lively images taken in Paris, where he visited extensively from 1947 to 1965 on assignment for Harperís Bazaar.
Despite the bleakness of the post-war years, Paris still represented the height of sophistication, and Avedon infused his photographs with a sense of optimism, helping the City of Light reclaim its position as the capital of the fashion world.
The photographer created imaginative narratives -- sometimes continued through several issues of the magazineóhighlighting couture collections and featuring his favorite models: Dorian Leigh, her sister Suzy Parker, Sunny Harnett, Dovima, Carmen, Elise Daniels, and even his wife, Doe Avedon.
He took these smartly outfitted women out of the studio and photographed them in French locales: Daniels, dressed in a Balenciaga suit, watching street performers in the Marais district in 1948; Harnett, in an evening dress by Gres, playing roulette at the Casino in Le Touquet, France, in 1954; and Parker, draped in a GrËs gown, sitting near cancan dancers at the Moulin Rouge in 1957.
Avedon's famous night scenes in Paris, which began in 1954, broadened his creative range. Like movie sets, the complex fashion shoots he directed used generators to light up entire city blocks, allowing him to capture stylish bon vivants enjoying Parisian nightlife.
During his early years at Harper's Bazaar, fashion photographs by Avedon were more than just a vehicle to market luxurious clothing to post-World War II American women -- they were the embodiment of a dynamic lifestyle.
His expressive images celebrated spirited women laughing, jumping, and dancingóeven roller skating in Parisóall while wearing the most beautiful clothes.
Those candid snapshots were in direct contrast to what was being done.
"I came in at a time when there weren't any young photographers working in a free way. Everyone was tired, the war was over, Dior let the skirts down, and suddenly everything was fun. It was historically a marvelous moment for a fashion photographer to begin. I think if I were starting today, it would be much harder." Avedon in 1965.
The son of a women's clothing store owner (Avedon's Fifth Avenue), Avedon became fascinated with fashion photography as a boy. As a young man, he joined the Merchant Marine (1942, where he was assigned to the photography division.
After leaving the service, Avedon enrolled in design classes at the New School for Social Research taught by Alexey Brodovitch, the art director of Harperís Bazaar.
In 1944, at age 21, Avedon joined the magazine, primarily as a photographer for Junior Bazaar. Shortly thereafter, he became an official staff photographer, working with the now legendary figures Carmel Snow, Brodovitch, and Diana Vreeland.
During the height of his career, Avedon became fashion photography's most influential and prolific practitioner.
His style was energetic and playful, with a flair for the dramatic, and while Avedon's location shoots were groundbreaking, his major studio shots were also ingeniously inventive.
The photographer illustrated the excitement of the ìnew look Diorófeaturing cinched waists and voluminous circle skirts -- by showing his model twirling on a Parisian street (Renée, The New Look of Dior,ace de la Concorde, Paris, August 1947).
Avedon Fashion includes a wide range of photographs that document the 1960s era, when advances in technology and demands for social reform became part of the evolving modern American experience.
Among them are Avedon's pictures of models wearing the mod designs of the period at Cape Canaveral near an Atlas missile, or in the spacesuit-inspired fashions of Andrurreges, as seen in the famous April 1965 Harperís Bazaar, the magazine's 20th anniversary edition, which Avedon guest edited.
The cover featured a Pop Art-inspired photograph by Avedon of Shrimpton in a day-glo pink helmetóthe same photograph that appears on the cover of the exhibitionís catalogue, Avedon Fashion 19440 (Abrams, New York, 2009).
The photographer also embraced changing social mores with his forays into imagery that included nudity (Nureyev, right), or were discreetly erotic, as seen in his depiction of a suggested ménage à trois between Abascal and Ana-Maria Abascal with model Helio Guerreiro, bathing suit by Brigance, Ibiza, Spain, September 1964).
courtesy, Vincent Baldino
Visit the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at : http://www.mfa.org/
