Robert Frank had the same kind of attitude when touring the country, a way to get attention, but with little depth, concocting stereotypes.
Whether you like his nervous work or not, he was brilliant at attaining effect, so relative to himself, the whole brash gritty feel was appropriate. His revealing of the "underlying soul" of sitters was a calculated artifice - he just wore them out under hot lights until they grimaced. He did that to Marilyn Monroe, to the Royal Couple, to many others. And a number of images in American West were staged contrivances. The beekeeper playing a flute was infamous in that respect - he was imported from somewhere up north specifically for the photo session stunt.
There's probably plenty of information out there on his equipment style too; but I don't have time to bother with that today.
The Amon Carter Museum does have some crown jewels of photography which actually empathize with people of the West, like the work of Laura Gilpin. But I get the impression that Avedon was a diecast New Yorker all along, hunting down photo specimens as if he was bug collecting, seeking or downright fabricating NYC stereotypes of the West, as if Texas and the plains Sates even qualify to be accounted as part of the West.
I know it’s just too muchSay what, now?
I was at the end of the road at the Petrified Forest
I know it’s just too much
Hey wanna hear my favorite super-famous Ansel Adams quote? “F/64 was a mistake and the west coast blows; I’m moving to Yonkers.” - Ansel Adams
Alex - you do know that Blue Mesa is an actual place, don't you, and not just a movie?
I thought Avedon and Cindy Sherman were the only photographers the young generation knew about.
Pretty sure all of the "America's West" work used natural lights with reflectors etc.
It stems from how Avedon was offered a MMA show before him, so he outright refused a subsequent offer, along with the terse quoted remark (much later he did accept).
I would read that as all photography was considered of no artistic merit. Which was the case at the time. Atget certainly photographed similar scenes towards the end of his life, so Kertesz claim seems a bit fatitious.
Can I ask: Is that your conclusion from the expressions on their faces alone or on other corroborating evidence such as what he might have said in interviews or was known to have said as an aside to someone who was there at the picture taking or knew him well?His revealing of the "underlying soul" of sitters was a calculated artifice - he just wore them out under hot lights until they grimaced. He did that to Marilyn Monroe, to the Royal Couple, to many others.
I wonder how many of us that might also be said about? Maybe it just as well that we are not all connected to each other by Skype, I think it is calledSome years back I ran into Avedon in NYC. When he looked at me it was like a strobe going off in my face. Rather intense.
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