[Leica] Richard Avedon's work

[leowesson at gmail.com (Leo Wesson)]

I have a friend who was a third assistant w avedons studio. One of his  
jobs was to chop up avedons reject prints.

I remember seeing contact sheets of his work somewhere, maybe the  
contact series of books, and realizing that part of his brilliance was  
his skill at editing.  Also very interesting is looking at contacts  
with dodge/burn notes on them.

I think for the most part, his sitters didn't expect for dick to shoot  
a photo that they would like.

Leo Wesson
photographer?videographer
leo at leowesson.com
817?733?9157

On Sep 6, 2009, at 9:48 AM, Adam Bridge <abridge at gmail.com> wrote:

> Having just toured the Richard Avedon exhibit at the SF MOMA I came
> away with a few questions I thought this knowledgeable group (note
> intense use of flattery) could answer:
>
> I notice that many of his images seemed to indicate he had selected
> out of many exposures. Since many of these were 8 x 10 I'm wondering
> if the unpublished negatives are still around and a part of his estate
> or were they destroyed? I kept wanting to see the sequence of which
> the chosen image was a part. I know that Adams' work is all stored and
> available to the appropriate researchers, or at least that it's mostly
> all still around. I loved Avedon's western images most of all, I
> think. Although there was a metzo-soprano portrait (I really really
> need to remember to take a notebook with me when I go to these things)
> that made me want to know her which always speaks well for a portrait.
> I keep wondering how people felt about their portraits. Did Kate
> Hepburn like hers? Seen full size the Marilyn photo is really amazing.
>
> Did Avedon do his own printing or did have a favorite printer/printers
> he worked with? In NYC I'm imaging there were and still are some
> pretty fabulous darkroom practitioners for whom printing is their
> livelyhood and primary skill. Probably elsewhere also, of course.
>
> How the heck did they print a huge image like the one of Andy Warhol
> and the Factory? It's huge.
>
> There were many striking images but the one that really knocked my
> socks off was on display at the very entrance to the gallery. It's at
> sunset on Venice's Muscle Beach and has a man holding a young boy up
> over his head in the palm of his hand. The image is very very grainy.
> It's almost a charcoal sketch. But for me it's everything wonderful
> about a particularly interpretive style of black and white photography
> I don't associate with Avedon at all. I'd love to know how it was
> made. Since it dates from the early 60s I can't even guess. Looks to
> be medium format since the print is square.
>
> Also at SF MOMA, ending today, is the Adams and O'Keeffe exhibit. I
> enjoyed it but came away enjoying O'Keeffe's early work more than her
> later work. Only one painting really grabbed me: "Dry Falls".
>
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