Performance For (And By) Richard Avedon

We all perform. It's what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintentionally. It's a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we'd like to be. — Richard Avedon

If you close your eyes and think of Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan or Andy Warhol, the images that come to mind were likely taken by Richard Avedon. So begins John Lahr's introduction to a book of Avedon's photographs — but his list of celebrity names is much, much longer. And that's because throughout his career, Avedon photographed nearly everyone: actors, musicians, playwrights, dancers ... the list goes on. A selection of these images has been compiled in an impressive, 304-page encyclopedia of fame called Performance.

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For performers and models alike, to be photographed by Avedon was a signal of having "made it." With big, black eyes magnified by thick lenses, he was a keen observer. He had the acuity to perceive subtleties of personality — and the artistry to translate them into images that would inform public perception. As one of the most famed portrait photographers, he was responsible for perpetuating legendary figures in America's collective memory. And he had fun with it.

Lahr, senior drama critic for The New Yorker magazine, writes:

Avedon's archive is a sort of memory theater of the great players and the occasional walk-ons who fretted and strutted their hour upon the last century's noisy stage. ... Over the years, as his understanding of life and of performance deepened, Avedon also discovered the exhaustion beneath the dynamism of fame's workhorses.

Aside from the large, crisp prints in this book, the best part is Lahr's description of what it was like to be photographed by Avedon. The text takes us into a big, white studio, beneath key lights, in front of Avedon's camera — on stage, more or less. It also places us next to Avedon, behind the lens, face-to-face with some of history's most famous faces.

On one hand, he was a spectator; but on the other, his act of photographing was a performance itself. His success stemmed from a love for flare, an ability to really see people, and an unconscious sensitivity to movement and expression. Performance is just as much an homage to Avedon's legacy as it is a catalog of American celebrity.

Avedon's portfolio most certainly is not limited to celebrities and models. But more images from the book, including the cover, are available for preview on The Richard Avedon Foundation Web site.

Images courtesy of The Richard Avedon Foundation, Performance, Abrams Books, 2008.

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