Sign-In
Cart
Avedon at Work: In the American West
Hardcover
Series: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Imprint
Photography History & Criticism
Publisher Price: $65.00
ISBN13: 9780292701939
Publisher: Univ Of Texas Pr
Published: Oct 1 2003
Pages: 132
Weight: 2.36
Height: 0.73 Width: 9.24 Depth: 11.42
Language: English
Internationally acclaimed for his portraits of powerful and accomplished people and women of great beauty, Richard Avedon was one of the twentieth century's greatest photographers--but perhaps not the most obvious choice to create a portrait of ordinary people of the American West. Yet in 1979, the Amon Carter Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, daringly commissioned him to do just that.
The resulting 1985 exhibition and book, In the American West, was a milestone in American photography and Avedon's most important body of work. His unflinching portraits of oilfield and slaughterhouse workers, miners, waitresses, drifters, mental patients, teenagers, and others captured the unknown and often-ignored people who work at hard, uncelebrated jobs. Making no apologies for shattering stereotypes of the West and Westerners, Avedon said, I'm looking for a new definition of a photographic portrait. I'm looking for people who are surprising--heartbreaking--or beautiful in a terrifying way. Beauty that might scare you to death until you acknowledge it as part of yourself.
Photographer Laura Wilson worked with Avedon during the six years he was making In the American West. In Avedon at Work, she presents a unique photographic record of his creation of this masterwork--the first time a major photographer has been documented in great depth over an extended period of time. She combines images she made during the photographic sessions with entries from her journal to show Avedon's working methods, his choice of subjects, his creative process, and even his experiments and failures. Also included are a number of Avedon's finished portraits, as well as his own comments and letters from some of the subjects.
Avedon at Work adds a new dimension to our understanding of one of the twentieth century's most significant series of portraits. For everyone interested in the creative process it confirms that, in Laura Wilson's words, much as all these photographs may appear to be moments that just occurred, they are finally, in varying degrees, works of the imagination.
Also in
Photography History & Criticism
The School of Photography: Beginner's Guide: Master Your Camera, Clear Up Confusion, Create Stunning Imagery
Newton, Marc
Paperback
Double Exposure: Resurveying the West with Timothy O'Sullivan, America's Most Mysterious War Photographer
Sullivan, Robert
Hardcover
Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb on Street Photography and the Poetic Image: The Photography Workshop Series
Webb, Alex
Norris Webb, Rebecca
Paperback
1000 Nudes. a History of Erotic Photography from 1839-1939
Koetzle, Hans-Michael
Scheid, Uwe
Hardcover
Still Lives: Jewish Photography in Nazi Germany
Wobick-Segev, Sarah
Grossmann, Rebekka
Ashkenazi, Ofer
Hardcover
Reminiscing 1960s America: Memory Lane Picture Book For Seniors with Dementia and Alzheimer's patients. (Large Print Edition)
Melgren, Jacqueline
Paperback
Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography
Meiselas, Susan
Azoulay, Ariella Aïsha
Ewald, Wendy
Hardcover
Double Exposure: Resurveying the West with Timothy O'Sullivan, America's Most Mysterious War Photographer
Sullivan, Robert
Paperback
A Brief History of Photography: From the Very Beginning to the Age of Digital
Young, David S.
Paperback
The Stahl House: Case Study House Ú22: The Making of a Modernist Icon
Stahl, Bruce
Stahl Gronwald, Shari
Hardcover
Good Pictures Are a Strong Weapon: Laura Gilpin, Queerness, and Navajo Sovereignty
Siddons, Louise
Paperback
Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers
Piper, Brian
Lord, Russell
Mason, John Edwin
Hardcover
Impressions of the Land: The Story of a Photographic Collection of Palestine-Eretz Israel
Vivienne, Silver-Brody
Paperback
How Photography Became Contemporary Art: Inside an Artistic Revolution from Pop to the Digital Age
Grundberg, Andy
Paperback
Flashes of Brilliance: The Genius of Early Photography and How It Transformed Art, Science, and History
Burgess, Anika
Hardcover
Movements, Motions, Moments: Photographs of Religion and Spirituality from the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Williams, Eric L.
Weisenfeld, Judith
Paperback
Spaceshots and Snapshots of Projects Mercury and Gemini: A Rare Photographic History
Bisney, John
Pickering, J. L.
Hardcover
The Attractions of the Moving Image: Essays on History, Theory, and the Avant-Garde
Gunning, Tom
Paperback
The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost
Manseau, Peter
Paperback
Body Language: The Queer Staged Photographs of George Platt Lynes and Pajama Volume 7
Miller, Angela
Lee, Anthony W.
Mauss, Nick
Paperback
The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston
University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses
Hardcover
The Joy of Looking: Great Photographs from the Library of Congress
Freece, Hannah
Hess, Aimee
Paperback
An Illustrated History of Snapshot Photography: From a Victorian Craze to the Digital Age
Wade, John
Hardcover
The Short Story of Photography: A Pocket Guide to Key Genres, Works, Themes & Techniques
Smith, Ian Haydn
Paperback