| Description |
129 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm |
| Series |
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center imprint series |
|
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center imprint series.
|
| Contents |
Machine derived contents note: Foreword by Larry McMurtry -- Acknowledgments -- Avedon at Work |
| Summary |
"Richard Avedon was one of the twentieth century's greatest photographers - but perhaps not the most obvious choice to create a portrait of ordinary people of the American West. Yet in 1979 the Amon Carter Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, daringly commissioned him to do just that." "The resulting 1985 exhibition and book, In the American West, was a milestone in American photography and Avedon's most important body of work. His unflinching portraits of oil field and slaughterhouse workers, miners, waitresses, drifters, mental patients, teenagers, and others captured the unknown and often ignored people who work at hard, uncelebrated jobs. Making no apologies for shattering stereotypes of the West and Westerners, Avedon said, "I'm looking for a new definition of a photographic portrait. I'm looking for subjects who are beautiful in a heart-rending way. Beauty that can be terrifying until you acknowledge it as part of yourself."" |
|
"Photographer Laura Wilson worked with Avedon during the six years he was making In the American West. In Avedon at Work, she presents a unique photographic record of his creation of this masterwork - the first time a major photographer has been documented in great depth over an extended period of time. She combines images she made during the photographic sessions with entries from her journal to show Avedon's working methods, his choice of subjects, his creative process, and even his experiments and failures. Also included are a number of Avedon's finished portraits, as well as his own comments and letters from some of the subjects."--BOOK JACKET |
| Notes |
Examines the creation of the photographs included in "In the American West," an exhibition held at the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Sept. 4-Nov. 17, 1985. A publication of the same name was produced in conjunction with the exhibition |
| Subject |
Avedon, Richard. In the American West
|
|
Avedon, Richard.
|
|
Portrait photography -- West (U.S.)
|
| Author |
Avedon, Richard.
|
|
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art.
|
| LC no. |
2003011151 |
| ISBN |
0292701934 |
|
