“Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me. My concern is… the human predicament; only what I consider the human predicament may simply be my own. ”
– Richard Avedon, photographer of In The American West
During the making his opus In The American West (1979 – 1984), American photographer Richard Avedon (1923–2004 , or one of his assistants, took a Polaroid photograph of each of the models intended to pose. The numbers displayed refer to files conserving the person’s authorisation for the publication of their image, as well as their name and address, such they’d receive a print of the photograph, a copy of the book, and an invitation to the exhibition.
As Clément Chéroux, director at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, says: “Comparing these polaroids with Avedon’s portraits shows his ability to transcend the appearance of his models.”
Richard Avedon, In the American West is at Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris.
Above: Roberto Lopez, Oil Field Worker, Lyons, Texas, September 28, 1980 by Richard Avedon for In The American West
In 1979, Carter director Mitchell A. Wilder commissioned Richard Avedon to record his view of America’s West. From 1979 to 1984, Avedon journeyed to 189 towns in 17 states- Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming – and into Canada.
He oversaw 752 sittings, exposing 17,000 sheets of film through his large-format view camera. But instead of the celebrities, models, and politicians he usually photographed, Avedon’s subjects were everyday people.
Above: Richard Avedon, Sandra Bennett, twelve year old, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23, 1980 © The Richard Avedon Foundation
In the American West was published and exhibited at the Carter in 1985. Avedon’s dramatically large portraits, some up to 4 feet tall and 11 feet long, shocked visitors with their stark detail, emphasizing the westerners’ trials, but also their determination and humanity. Two generations later, the 124 photographs of In the American West remain some of the most important and influential portraits of the 20th century.
Above: John Harrison, Lumber Salesman, and His Daughter Melissa, Lewisville, Texas, November 22, 1981
Via: Clement-Cheroux on instagram. Get the book Richard Avedon In The American West.
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