Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>on 8/13/01 10:14 AM, Dave Jenkins at djphoto@vol.com wrote: >> On >> some levels "The Americans" may be a great piece of work. Undeniably, it >> has been seminal in its effects and undoubtedly did cause some americans >> to think differently about their country. Which is unfortunate, because >> the book is essentially a lie about America. >> >> As is Avedon's book "In the American West." > >you think they're lies because they don't reflect the America you know? > >Is this is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the glass, or Caliban >NOT seeing his own face in the glass? >John Brownlow I don't see The Americans as "the America I know" for sure. I've lived here all my life and not seen it that way. Of course the pictures were made when I was a child so I wouldn't be in a position to state that they were "correct" or not. About all I can think is that Frank saw it this way, this is his take on America - no more. Avedon's pictures are from reasonably current days and guess what? I still don't see "The American West" in them. The people he chose are simply the subjects that he found interesting - again his take on what he saw. What he saw as a fashion photographer. There's lots more to any country or area than finding some "photogenic subjects" and calling them representative. I can see how some would call them lies. They certainly are not accurate images of Americans as I know them. Some of them could be "The Mexicans" as far as I know. Here is what Avedon says: "Beginning in the spring of 1971 I spent the summer months traveling in the West, going to truck stops, stockyards, walking through the crowds at a fair, looking for faces I wanted to photograph. The structure of the project was clear to me almost at the start and each new portrait had to find its place in that structure. As the work progressed, the portraits themselves began to reveal connections of all kinds-psychological, sociological, physcal, familial-among people who had never met." http://www.richardavedon.com/interviews/american.html Whose connections were revealed, the subjects or Avedon's? Is there more to The American West? Certainly. I think this kind of project can be done anywhere and given a title that indicates to the purchaser some kind of completeness of coverage. When we buy anyone's book we're buying what he chose to show us, in this case its people in truckstops and stockyards. I think its something he chose to sell us. Fashion photographs of "interesting looking subjects" or some might call it a freak show. I don't see "The American West" Henry