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Richard Avedon - Portraits of Power

My wife and I recently made a visit to the Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power exhibition at SDMA in Balboa Park.

Richard Avedon, whose career spanned six decades, was one of the most important photographers in the history of American photography. He was an innovator in portraiture and fashion photography and worked for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker.

As a photographer myself, though of infinitesimal stature compared to the fame of Mr. Avedon, this exhibition of portraits interested me a lot. I have recently been writing a workshop about photographic composition, so the old chestnuts about framing and border mergers were fresh in my mind. What I saw in this exhibition therefore stood out and made me think.

In so many of these portraits, Avedon places his subject dead in the center of a square frame, cutting them off at the ankles and having their head touching the top of the frame. If I did that, I am sure everyone would just say I was a bad photographer. Richard Avedon does it and, of course, he's brilliant.

Assuming this to be deliberate, I wondered why he did it. I think because it creates a tension between the subject and the physical photograph. It draws attention to the frame as if to say that this is a bare photograph of a person, not a highly stylized portrait, and you can look into the frame and let the image speak for itself. The subjects, especially when seen in a group like this seem to have been captured in a moment, like in an identity photograph, without artifice or direction. In a portrait, the person in it knows they are being photographed and are interacting with the camera to present an image that they want us to see. Avedon, like all great photographers, breaks the mask and presents us with something very human.

I’ll be back at the exhibition again on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. for a walk-through talk by Arthur Ollman followed by a workshop on exploring the black-and-white portrait/self-portrait. If you are interested in coming along reservations can be made at [email protected]

Here’s one of the few portraits I’ve done where I did merge the subject with the border!...

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My wife and I recently made a visit to the Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power exhibition at SDMA in Balboa Park.

Richard Avedon, whose career spanned six decades, was one of the most important photographers in the history of American photography. He was an innovator in portraiture and fashion photography and worked for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker.

As a photographer myself, though of infinitesimal stature compared to the fame of Mr. Avedon, this exhibition of portraits interested me a lot. I have recently been writing a workshop about photographic composition, so the old chestnuts about framing and border mergers were fresh in my mind. What I saw in this exhibition therefore stood out and made me think.

In so many of these portraits, Avedon places his subject dead in the center of a square frame, cutting them off at the ankles and having their head touching the top of the frame. If I did that, I am sure everyone would just say I was a bad photographer. Richard Avedon does it and, of course, he's brilliant.

Assuming this to be deliberate, I wondered why he did it. I think because it creates a tension between the subject and the physical photograph. It draws attention to the frame as if to say that this is a bare photograph of a person, not a highly stylized portrait, and you can look into the frame and let the image speak for itself. The subjects, especially when seen in a group like this seem to have been captured in a moment, like in an identity photograph, without artifice or direction. In a portrait, the person in it knows they are being photographed and are interacting with the camera to present an image that they want us to see. Avedon, like all great photographers, breaks the mask and presents us with something very human.

I’ll be back at the exhibition again on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. for a walk-through talk by Arthur Ollman followed by a workshop on exploring the black-and-white portrait/self-portrait. If you are interested in coming along reservations can be made at [email protected]

Here’s one of the few portraits I’ve done where I did merge the subject with the border!...

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The photography of Abelardo Morell
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4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
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