The Sherman & Avedon Murals: Large Photographic Portraits
Avedon, Allen Ginsberg’s family - view large
While the style, content and technique are very different, there are two exhibits in Chelsea featuring large portraits, Cindy Sherman at Metro Pictures and Richard Avedon at Gagosian. Avedon’s work is black and white documentary portraiture of real people, selected by Avedon and his editors as culturally or politically relevant. Sherman’s portraits are fictional characters wearing Chanel outfits, each played by Sherman. Her work is contemporary, produced with digital cameras, green-screen technique and modern printers. Avedon’s work was made in the early 1970’s; it’s still challenging to produce photographic prints at three meters high.
Cindy Sherman
Richard Avedon, Bob Dylan, Central Park, New York, 1965
Richard Avedon, Rome, 1946
Richard Avedon: Three Singers
After the death of Whitney Houston this weekend, several people posted an isolated vocal version of “How Will I Know.” Here you can finally listen to this woman’s voice without the 80’s arrangements. People also posted two photographs for the cover of 1986/1987’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” credited to Richard Avedon.
The first thing you notice is Avedon is shooting color, which must be at the request of the record label. Houston’s hand is making this wave gesture while slightly pulling up her t-shirt, it exists in both frames; it’s likely Avedon either directed this or got her to hold it once she did it.
Richard Avedon, François Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Leaud, Paris, June 20th, 1971
Richard Avedon, Jean Genet, New York, 1970
Richard Avedon, Ban the Bomb Protest March, Times Square, New York, 1963
Richard Avedon, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Princeton, New Jersey, 1958
The A-Team versus Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon, June Leaf, sculptor, Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia, July 17, 1975
