| Photography Forum: Philosophy Of Photography Forum: |
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Q. Richard Avedon Project !!??
Asked by Stefan Rohner
(K=4200) on 10/12/2004
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Hello, maybe I am blind but what I see in that project has nothing to do with Avedons work.. I am dissapointed with the photos presented in this project, people should at least have a look at his work first....
best regards Stefan
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Ray Heath
(K=4559) - Comment Date 10/12/2004
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well seen Stefan, I too was disappointed with the postings and felt they conveyed nothing of the Avedon style, this prompted me to do as you so rightly point out here, I checked out his web site to discover that his latest work still utilises the simplicity of plain background, head and shoulders, honest expression, I then set up a studio lighting scheme to do my version using my son as subject
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Chuck Freeman
(K=13616) - Comment Date 10/14/2004
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Yours is a great image indeed. Yiou are right though, it is hard to copy the masters. See my photo of KATIE... PERHAPS A POOR IMITATION.
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al shaikh
(K=15790) - Comment Date 10/16/2004
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Richards work was diverse if all you know is his fashion stuff, you may want to take a closer look. The work he cared about most seemed to be his portraits.
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Deb Mayes
(K=19605) - Comment Date 10/16/2004
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I agree, Admin. He seemed to favor black and white, but then he did that crazy Beatles thing that was a perfect expression of the time.
I'm going to bore all of you with a true story that shows the perils of passing judgment:
My aunt was a graduate student at Duke University. On one of her final exams, they were asked to interpret a poem by Marianne Moore.
When the tests came back, my aunt got a low score. She was told that the other students had understood the spirit of the poem, but she had misinterpreted it.
My aunt has never been one to accept the herd mentality, so she wrote to Marianne Moore (still alive at the time) and explained the situation, giving both interpretations, the "right" one and hers.
Marianne Moore wrote back and basically said, "you're right, they're wrong".
The university changed my aunt's grade. (They also made a rule to never give an exam based on a living poet's work ... )
The point I'm trying to make here is that art is measured by the response it evokes. To my mind, at least, the man communicated a connection with his subjects that went beyond posing a person in front of a pure white background and that was his genius: they communicate to us through him.
If the project gets people to look at Avedon's work and perhaps learn from it, it's a success, even if people don't make slavish copies of one of his styles. We can't force other people to learn, but we can learn and improve our own work, and in the end, that's enough. :)
/end soapbox
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Ray Heath
(K=4559) - Comment Date 10/17/2004
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a great story Deb, and as you say "art is measured by the response it evokes"
that Avedon used a white background is not the important point, in fact on his website currently the backgrounds vary in tone but all are plain
the salient fact is that he removed all distraction so as to focus attention on his subject, I believe this is good photography in any genre, if the viewer is not instantly aware what is the subject, then the image has failed the first criteria
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Deb Mayes
(K=19605) - Comment Date 10/17/2004
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No argument from me, Ray. :)
If you haven't seen his series on the New Yorkers, do yourself a favor and have a look. The backgrounds are *not* plain, but he focuses attention on his subject even so. And the choice of props is hilarious and appropriate.
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Mary Sue Hayward
(K=17558) - Comment Date 10/24/2004
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Great story, Deb. You can apply that lesson to many aspects of life.
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