AVEDON, RICHARD. (1923-2004). Celebrated American portrait and fashion photographer. Book Signed. (“Avedon”). Unpaginated (432 pp. with 284 tritone plates) Folio. (11¼” x 14¼”). N.p., 1994. A pristine first edition of his book An Autobiography, boldly signed and dated on the front flyleaf in black ink. In the original acetate dust jacket.
Richard Avedon is best known for his numerous portraits of celebrities, models and political figures photographed during a career that spanned more than half a century. Nearly all of his portraits were shot in a studio with the sitter in front of a blank white background. His subject would be free to move around the space as they saw fit while Avedon asked him or her questions, often deeply personal, that evoked a pronounced reaction from the sitter. In this way he was able to capture genuine and unique images from such practiced subjects such as the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.
When it was released in 1993, Publisher’s Weekly said that, in An Autobiography, “Avedon excels in brutally frontal, stark black and white portraits that strip away pretensions and personas… The juxtapositions of images are often meant to provoke or unsettle… There are intimate family snapshots, glimpses of the fashion world, documentary photos of the civil rights struggle… A haunting portrait of our age.”
With several uncut pages. Mint, though lacking the original plain cardboard box.
