Richard Avedon: Photographer changed the face of fashion-15/8/10

Richard Avedon: Photographer changed the face of fashion-15/8/10


By Chris Bergeron/DAILY NEWS STAFF
GHS
Posted Aug 15, 2010 @ 06:00 PM
BOSTON —

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Richard Avedon created memorable images that defined American attitudes toward stylish living, the changing roles of women and the art of fashion photography.

A comprehensive exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts reveals the breadth and impact of Avedon's career through 140 photographs, magazines, engravers' prints and contact sheets.

The just-opened traveling show, "Avedon: Fashion 1944-2000," makes a compelling case for its subject as a trendsetting innovator and major artist who transcended the limitations of fashion photography.

Regardless of one's feelings about glossy photos of fur-trimmed booties or any photos of Barbra Streisand, viewers just might leave this exhibit feeling Avedon's enormous volume of work says as much about certain segments of American society as Ansel Adams' photos of the West.

From the pages of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines, Avedon's dynamic photos of glamorous women lounging in Parisian bistros or New York discos chronicled the revolutionary transformation of modern culture.

Paul Roth, executive director of the Richard Avedon Foundation, described Avedon as a "whirling dervish of a photographer" who created "meticulously constructed fantasies" about his subjects and their clothes.

A fashionably dressed model in a Dior dress roller skates through Place de la Concord, Paris, with a high-stepping guy in a three-piece suit. Surrounded by suave men in tuxes, a blonde beauty in an evening dress by Gres plays roulette in a French casino.

Organized by decades, the exhibit features many of the signature photos that contributed to Avedon's reputation as an image-maker who both reflected and shaped dramatic changes in 20th century life.

The exhibit was curated by Carol Squiers and Vince Aletti, of the International Center of Photography in conjunction with the Richard Avedon Foundation of New York. Anne Havinga, MFA senior curator of photography, and Emily Voelker, assistant curator of photographs, worked on the Boston version of the show.

Havinga said Avedon reinvented fashion photography by creating dynamic images of women in motion that set an ideal of the modern American woman.

"Avedon wanted to romanticize fashion. He extravagantly staged his photo shoots. He captured those moments when a woman feels most beautiful," she said.

Instead of posing models like shop window dummies, Avedon staged scenes in which women laughed, smiled, pouted, tried on pearls, drank wine from long-stemmed cups and twirled about, often with a good-looking guy for a prop.

They had photogenic faces, big eyes and impossibly long legs. They leapt through the air, kicked their heels, lounged on yachts, danced by themselves and bared their breasts.

Roth said Avedon utilized specific locations, props including floodlights and animals, and amateur and professional models to create "fictionalized narratives" that prompted viewers to connect high fashion with a glamorous lifestyle.

He might have been referring to photos like these: A bored beauty in a lampshade hat sits with a shaggy wolfhound. The elfin face of Audrey Hepburn lights up Maxim's in Paris.

"These illustrations are planned out. They are staged theatrical productions. They are not snapshots," said Roth.

Whether visitors to this fascinating retrospective wear Versace or L.L. Bean, they will recognize as many seminal images of American life as they'd see in exhibits about Edward Hopper or Norman Rockwell.

The exhibit was organized by the International Center of Photography with cooperation from The Richard Avedon Foundation in New York, the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco and Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York.

A New Yorker who took his first photos in 1942, Avedon, who died in 2004, left behind a gallery of models who became icons of poised sophistication, elegant beauty and exuberant sensuality.

Suzy Parker dashes from a Montmarte nightclub into the glare of paparazzi's flashbulbs. With fearless sang-froid, Dovima stands between two elephants, holding one's trunk like a bouquet.

Twirling her braid, Veruschka pirouettes on impossibly long legs. Lauren Hutton sits on a beach puffing a joint.

MFA Director Malcolm Roger said Avedon forever transformed the way we look at fashion.

"He literally revolutionized the vocabulary of fashion photography. He was the first major photographer to use models of color. He created an idealized version of great American women. He illustrated the significance of fashion photography in our lives," he said.

Born in 1923 into a Russian-Jewish family, Avedon's early life provides tantalizing clues why he became one of the most influential photographers of his time.

The son of a women's clothing store owner on Fifth Avenue, he was fascinated by photography as a child. After dropping out of Columbia University, he joined the Merchant Marines in 1942 where he took identification photos of crewmen with a Rolleiflex camera his father had given him as a going-away present.

Avedon's entrance into the then not-so-glamorous world of fashion photography was as daring as many of his best images.

Roth said he "prodded" staff at Bonwit-Teller to loan him models and clothes and in return he promised to shoot a free advertisement for Harper's Bazaar for them.

Using his sister as a model, Avedon produced a layout so impressive, Roth said he was "almost immediately hired" for Junior Harper's, a companion magazine aimed at younger readers.

A thousand years from now, archaeologists might study photos taken by Avedon over the arc of his career to see how changing women's fashion signaled parallel changes in their relationships with men, social and economic status and liberated sexuality.

It's easy to belittle fashion magazines as cultural barometers yet Roth pointed out Avedon's photos of the annual Parisian Collection from 1947 into the 1950s achieved the industry's conscious goal of "reinvigorating the image of Paris after World War II."

Aletti said Avedon played a huge role popularizing the "romance of an American in Paris" which stimulated a post-war wave of expatriate adventurers and inspired "Funny Face," a movie starring Audrey Hepburn that fictionalized Avedon's life.

When Stanley Donen directed the 1957 Oscar-winning movie, Avedon found himself tutoring Fred Astaire, whom he'd admired for his casual sophistication, on how to play the starring role of Dick Avery, modeled after himself.

Roth said Avedon described the improbable mix of fact and fiction like the fantasies of glamour and self-invention at the heart of his photographs.

"I learned how to be myself by imitating Fred Astaire," Avedon had said, "And now I'm helping Fred Astaire imitate me."

Throughout a storied career, Avedon played that same role for anyone influenced by his photos.

THE ESSENTIALS:

The Museum of Fine Arts is at Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston.

The museum is open seven days a week. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Saturday through Tuesday and 10 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.

It is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Independence and Patriots days.

General admission (which includes two visits in a 10-day period) is $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and students 18 and older and includes entry to all galleries and special exhibitions. Admission for students who are university members is free as is admission for children under 17 during non-school hours. On school days until 3 p.m., admission for youths 7 to 17 years old is $7.50. No admission fee is required after 4 p.m. on Wednesdays although voluntary donations are welcome.

The MFA is planning several events and programs in conjunction with "Avedon: Fashion 1944-2000." Some fees apply. They include:

* Wednesday, Sept. 29, 6:30 p.m.: Matthew Weiner, creator and executive producer of "Mad Men"
* Wednesday, Oct. 6, 7 p.m.: A panel discussion on "Japanese Tattooing in Translation"

The following related films will be screened; some fees apply.

* Tuesday, Oct. 5, 1 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 10, 11:30 a.m.: "Funny Face" starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire
* Tuesday, Oct. 12, 1 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 15, 5:10 p.m.; Saturday, Oct. 16, 2:45 p.m.: "Blow Up," starring David Hemmings

Friday, Oct. 15, 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 16, 12:15 p.m.: "Hair" starring Treat Williams and John Savage

For information, call 617-267-9300 or visit www.mfa.org.
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