Re: Dick Avedon- was Re: brown skins

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Richard Avedon's American West series is something that has never lost it's magic for me, and was one of my first real loves in photography. When I did my fist degree (about 12 years ago) it was a book I found in the college library, and I think it had more effect on me than I realised at the time. Each portrait is a thing of beauty in itself, but the whole series together makes for something else entirely...for me 'the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts'.

It's led me down a path of being interested in collections of people, that have included the likes of August Sander (another of my all time heros) Irving Penn, Daniel Meadows and more recently Rineka Dijkstra.

The American West series is something that I keep coming back to time and time again, so much so that I'm presently in the process of applying for a grant from Arts Council England to try to emulate something similar in my local neighbourhood in Leeds. I guess I  just want to see if I could ever produce something like that, and also as an exercise in slowing down the work...I want to use 5x4 to do it on (although he used a 10x8) which would be so much more of a challenge than a DSLR. I probably won't get the funding of course, but no harm in dreaming.

Jonathan
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Jonathan Turner, Photographer e: pictures@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx t: 07796 470573 w: www.jonathan-turner.com

On 22/03/2013 21:56, Herschel Mair wrote:
Sadly missed. His book of portraits from the American West is such an important document.... Straight portraits... unadorned and un-constructed (To a large extent) People so readily associate the West with either California/LA/Hollywood or cowboys and rodeos. So his pictures of people molded by their immersion in heavy  industry really brings a hard reality check. I can't stop staring at the images.

On 3/22/2013 3:40 PM, Jan Faul wrote:
The only two photographers I can think of who don’t shoot smiling brown faces even though they are on location, are Phil Borges and Mark Tucker. Even people who should know better can’t do a portrait without a grinning subject. 
I’d put Dick Avedon on my ‘few smiles’ list, but he is no longer shooting portraits.


Jan

On Mar 22, 2013, at 1:10 PM, karl shah-jenner wrote:

From: "Jan Faul" <jan@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students" <photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2013 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: Brutal Review of PF members exhibit on March 16, 2013



One of my objections to photographers shooting the locals while traveling is that there is a preponderance of smiling faces aimed at the camera while we as viewers do not know if they are smiling because the photographer has just given them $50, promised them a trip to Disneyland, or other inducement to smile. I dislike portfolios of brown-skinned foreigners smiling  at the cameras it reeks of everything bad about Yuppies.




http://www.grumpyoldsod.com/hypocrisy.asp

touches on the subject somewhat..

well, a bit.

I thought it interesting

k


Art Faul

The Artist Formerly Known as Prints
------
Stills That Move: http://www.artfaul.com
Camera Works - The Washington Post
art for cars: panowraps.com
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