Alice Day
A Study of Richard Avedon’s work focusing on ‘Dovima with Elephants’.
Figure 1: ‘Dovima with Elephants’ by Richard Avedon, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, 1955.
This essay will explore the works of Richard Avedon, focusing on ‘Dovima with Elephants’, which is considered one of the most famous and influential fashion photographs of the twentieth century. ‘Dovima with Elephants’ was taken in the Cirque d’Hiver in Paris for Harper’s Bazaar, photographing Dior’s autumn/winter 1955-56 collection, and is the first evening dress a relatively unknown Yves St Laurent designed for the house. When Avedon walked into the Cirque d’Hiver he said, “A position in dance... I saw the elephants under an enormous skylight and in a second I knew I then had to find the right dress and I knew that there was potential here.” (De Ribes, Dior by Avedon, 2015). The ‘right dress’ was the ‘Soiree de Paris’, from Dior’s collection of Y-Line evening dresses (figure 2).
Figure 2: ‘Soiree de Paris’ by Yves St Laurent for Dior, 1955-56 A/W collection.
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Alice Day Richard Avedon was born in 1923 in New York, where he grew up being surrounded by the fashion industry as his parents owned a retail clothing and dress making business. It wasn’t just the fashion industry which influenced Avedon as a child, but also the family portraits which his parents would create; posing with dogs and cars which they didn’t own, showing the life they dreamed of having. This represents a dreamlike and idealistic style of photography, which is evident throughout Avedon’s career. This imaginative way of capturing a family portrait is what sparked Avedon’s interest in photography, and it was his father that taught him how to use a camera and the importance of light in images. “It was my father who taught me the physics of photography. When I was a boy he explained to me the power of light in the making of a photograph. He held a magnifying glass between the sun and a leaf and set the leaf on fire. The next day, as an experiment, I taped a negative of my sister onto my skin and spent the day on Atlantic Beach. That night, when I peeled the negative off, there was my sister, sunburned onto my shoulder. I knew from the beginning that being a photographer and playing with light means playing with fire. Neither the photographer nor his subject gets out of it unsinged.” (De Ribes, Dior by Avedon, 2015). You can see the influence of his family portraits in Avedon’s own work; using props and animals to create a narrative within the image. Avedon’s passion for photography grew after he worked as a photographers mate in the army and helped him to refine his technique. After he returned in 1944, he met Alexey Brodovitch, the then art director of Harper’s Bazaar, where he began working freelance. After Avedon was denied studio time at the magazine, he began shooting models on location in the streets of Paris, which later became one of his trademarks and was extremely influential among other photographers. After working as lead photographer for Harper’s Bazaar for twenty years, Avedon received criticism for his use of models of different ethnicities in his photographs, so he left to work for Harper’s Bazaar’s biggest competition, Vogue magazine, where he stayed for a further twenty years. Avedon experimented with all different kinds of photography throughout his career, from fashion, to portraiture, to political and ad campaigns. He created brand defining work for Calvin Klein, Revlon, Versace and more. In 1922, he became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker, where his portraiture redefined the aesthetic of the magazine. It was working on a piece for The New Yorker where Avedon sadly passed away on the first of October 2004 at the age of eighty one. 2
Alice Day The first thing you notice about ‘Dovima with Elephants’ (figure 1) is the striking contrasts between the model Dovima (born Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba), and the elephants. The first contrast is age and its stresses; Dovima’s glowing white skin juxtaposes against the dark wrinkles of the mournful looking elephants. Avedon regularly represents age within his photographs, for example, his book ‘In the American West’ (figure 3), featuring a series of portraits which were taken over the course of five years in the early eighties, representing the stresses of age and daily life.
Figure 3: ‘In the American West’ by Richard Avedon, 1985
Another clear contrast in the image is freedom and captivity. The way in which Dovima seems to be towering over the elephants, with a strong, confident pose, and the elephants (who are chained around the ankles) appear to cowering away from her. This also links to the contrast between human and animal, and even beauty and beast. Man overpowers animal in this photograph representing that they are the more dominant species. It is said that ‘Dovima with Elephants’ is meant to have a dream like quality, with the elephants subtly out of focus with the shallow depth of field, representing them almost drifting away. This also shows influence from Avedon’s family portraits, where his parents created a dreamlike world which they desired to live in, using borrowed animals as props. Someone Avedon was inspired by and who has clearly influenced him with his photograph, ‘Dovima with Elephants’, is the photographer Martin Munkasci. Munkasci was one of the first photographers to shoot on location, which then went on to become Avedon’s trademark. In his image ‘Fred Astaire on his toes’
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Alice Day (figure 4), you can clearly see Munkasci’s use of lines throughout his work, from the curve of his arms, which is reflected in the positioning of his leg, which is then mirrored in the shadow on the wall. Munkasci’s influence is clear in ‘Dovima with Elephants’, as the lines Dovima creates with her arms, which flow from the trunk of the elephant through to her hand, which then juxtaposes against her long straight body and the white sash, is synonymous with Munkasci’s style of photography.
Figure 4: ‘Fred Astaire on his toes’ by Martin Munkasci, 1938.
Figure 5: ‘Four Boys at Lake Tanganyika’ by Martin Munkasci, 1930.
Another feature which has now become Avedon’s trademark, which was originally influenced by Munkasci’s work, is the way he crops his photographs. In figure 5, you can see the way in which Munkasci has cropped the image so even though there are actually four boys there, the fourth is only hinted at with a hand on the left side of the image. Avedon has used a very similar technique in ‘Dovima with elephants’: four elephants are in the photograph, but two are only hinted at as only their legs appear in the image. Cropping
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Alice Day an image in this way leaves more to the imagination and creates less negative space, making the viewer focus on the subject at hand. Avedon also produced a second image of ‘Dovima with Elephants’ (Figure 6), with her wearing a different Dior dress with a slightly different composition. This image is far less popular than figure 1 as it has far less of an impact, and there was only ever one print made after the original was lost. Figure 6 is executed in a very similar way to figure 1, with the way Dovima’s arms mirror the elephants trunks and legs, as if they are standing in formation, but there is far less of a contrast between the model and the animals and Avedon’s use of cropping does make a huge impact in the power of the image as there is less negative space.
Figure 6: ‘Dovima with Elephants’ by Richard Avedon, Cirque d’Hiver, 1955.
Although ‘Dovima with Elephants’ is one of the most famous photographs of the twentieth century, Avedon was never happy with the image, and curiously left it out of his autobiography. It was said that he was never happy with the way the sash draped against Dovima’s body, but instead wished he could have had a wind machine blowing it to mirror the shape of Dovima’s arm and the elephant’s trunk. Other photographers believe that this would have ruined the image, but Avedon was always a perfectionist. One of the first women Avedon ever photographed was his sister, Louise, who suffered with a mental illness which eventually led to her death. She was Avedon’s most influential model, and her memory can be seen throughout the photographer’s early work. Avedon said in an interview published in 1984, “She
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Alice Day was treated as if there was no one inside her perfect skin, as if she was simply her long throat, her deep brown eyes. I think she also believed she existed only as skin, and hair, and a beautiful body.” (De Ribes, Dior by Avedon, 2015). A reflection of Louise can be seen in Dovima, Dorian Leigh and Audrey Hepburn, who Avedon described as “memories of his sister”. The women Avedon photographed were always portrayed as beautiful and isolated, and even when the model was not alone in the photograph, she always appeared lonely. The first examples of this were Avedon’s portraits of his sister (figure 7) as her mental illness left her detached from the world and she was left with just her beauty.
Figure 7: Louise Avedon by Richard Avedon, 1945.
The 1960’s bore witness to a dramatic change in fashion photography. Models were no longer treated as clothes hangers, photographed in studios with controlled lighting, but instead, they were depicted as women, with personality and character. They were no longer just an object for observation, but were photographed in motion showing power and energy; their clothes and body distorted by movement. The blur in figure 8, created by movement of the dress and model became known as the ‘Avedon blur’ and was reoccurring throughout Avedon’s work. What is usually considered as a mark of an amateur photographer, actually takes a lot of technical knowledge to create a photograph with exactly the right amount of ‘blur’, and Avedon has perfected this and made it another of his trademarks. Richard Avedon had been photographing models on location for at least a decade, but it wasn’t until the sixties that the recurring images of beautiful, isolated women in memory of his lost sister began to diminish from his work. Avedon became one of the leader’s in photographing women portraying their energy and personality and it was this
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Alice Day that birthed the era of the ‘Single Girl’. The ‘Single Girl’ was someone who didn’t need a man, someone who was powerful and energetic, yet at the same time appeared beautiful and youthful. This new ideal of a strong, independent ‘Single Girl’ gave women a new definition of femininity and was initiated by the Feminist Movement of the 1960’s. Feminist’s believed that women should have equal rights to men, and be in control of their own lives and make their own choices. This change in society is reflected in Avedon’s work as he no longer portrayed women as the idealised and stereotypical version of feminine. A perfect example of a ‘Single Girl’ is Avedon’s portrait of Barbra Streisand (figure 9), who was described in Vogue as “more than a star: a style, a fashion, a natural force… Suddenly a Streisand nose is the interesting nose.” (De Ribes, Dior by Avedon, 2015).
Figure 8: Penelope Tree by Richard Avedon, Dress by Lanvin, 1968.
Figure 9: Barbra Streisand by Richard Avedon, 1966.
Avedon’s love for photographing women with personality was represented in his work. He loved to use costume, accessories and expression to manipulate the surface to show what is inside. For example, for a writer the emphasis would be on their hands, and in fashion photos, he would use costume to its greatest advantage. “Portraiture is performance,” he wrote in 1987. “You can’t get at the thing itself, the real nature of the sitter, by stripping away the surface. You can only get beyond the surface by working with the surface. All that you can do is manipulate that surface—gesture, costume, expression—radically and correctly.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 38). Avedon’s extravagantly staged photo shoots, which were made to look spontaneous, were described as ‘meticulously designed fantasies’. His work on location is regularly described as ‘dream like’, and it is Avedon’s parent’s family portraits (where they borrowed pets and cars to
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Alice Day portray the life they desired), which influenced the photographer to create a fictionalised narrative within his images which depicts a glamorous lifestyle. Although Avedon is most famous for his influential work photographing models on location, his studio work also portrays the way the photographer can capture an emotion through just an expression on the models face. He uses stark lighting and a minimalist white backdrop for his black and white portraits and the images regularly contain the dark outline of the film in which the image was framed. The simplicity of the photograph is what draws you in to view the intimate emotive power of the subject’s expression, which can be seen in figure 10 in Avedon’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Avedon aimed to reveal the true personality of celebrities in particular, and this is one of the only photographs which shows the audience a glimpse into Monroe’s inner life with her public façade down. This photo was taken in Avedon’s studio in May 1957, Avedon said, “For hours she danced and sang and flirted and did this thing that’s—she did Marilyn Monroe. And then there was the inevitable drop. And when the night was over and the white wine was over and the dancing was over, she sat in the corner like a child, with everything gone. I saw her sitting quietly without expression on her face, and I walked towards her but I wouldn’t photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying no.” (Sargeant, A woman entering a taxi in the rain, 1958). Avedon had a talent for making his subject be themselves so he could capture their true personality. Another example of Avedon’s studio work can be seen in figure 11, in Avedon’s portrait of the actress Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn starred in the film ‘Funny Face’ (1957) where she acted alongside Fred Astaire, who’s character (a charming fashion photographer) was inspired by Richard Avedon, and Hepburn’s character (bookkeeper turned model) was inspired by the photographer’s wife, Doe Avedon. The film is said to be based on their relationship and how Avedon turned his wife into a famous model. Hepburn’s casting in this role shows a shift in attitude and aesthetic towards the end of the 1950’s, as she portrays ‘the girl next door’, who is slightly awkward and imperfect. This kind of woman started to appear in print shortly after, as the sixties saw the rise of models such as Twiggy, who’s adolescent appearance was an enormous contrast to the models of the fifties who were described as elegant, sophisticated and even prude-like.
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Figure 10: Marilyn Monroe by Richard Avedon, 1957.
Figure 11: Audrey Hepburn by Richard Avedon, December 1953.
Although Avedon had spent most of his life in the fashion industry, it came to be obvious that his main interest was not photographing fashion, but instead photographing women. Avedon’s women are known for being radiant and intense. The photographer chose his models not just for their beauty, but for certain aspects of their personality that he felt would work best in his photographs. Avedon said, “I can’t think of myself as a purveyor of beauty,” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 38). He wanted the real. Once Avedon found a model who portrayed the perfect amount of beauty and personality, he was loyal to her and spent weeks examining all her quirks and characteristics. Avedon had a way of making his women feel important and admired by applauding their every triumph and giving them all of his attention, but in the fashion industry, constancy is death, so naturally his models would change. Not surprisingly, with the amount of attention Avedon would give his models, there would always be speculation over the nature of the relationship between them. The only model Avedon had a known relationship with was Dorcas Nowell, who later became known as Doe Avedon. Richard Avedon met Nowell whilst she was working in a bank and they married in 1944. He then went on to transform his wife into a famous model and was one of his first muses after his lost sister. He renamed her ‘Doe’, due to her large fawn like eyes, and nothing pleased him more than to dress her up and show her off in public. Five years after their marriage, the couple divorced. Avedon’s friends are inclined to believe that he thought of her as just his lovely creation for his camera lens. Avedon was quoted as saying, “I have to be a little bit in love with my models,” which of course only fuelled the allegations of him being involved with his subjects, but he later cleared it up by saying, “It’s like the
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Alice Day feeling you have for kittens or puppies.” (Sargeant, A woman entering a taxi in the rain, 1958). In any case, this issue definitely had an effect on Avedon’s life, as his second wife, Evelyn Franklin, a highly intelligent and beautiful woman, was completely disassociated with the fashion industry. Avedon has even been said to have described models as “a group of underdeveloped, frightened, insecure women, most of whom have been thought ugly as children—too tall and too skinny. They are all subject to trauma where their looks are concerned. You have to make them feel beautiful.” (Sargeant, A woman entering a taxi in the rain, 1958). After the breakup of Avedon’s first marriage, his attitudes towards photographing women began to change. He realised he was trying to capture the idealised version of women; elegant, perfect and without a single flaw. Afterward, he began to focus more on what is underneath a woman’s skin, and portraying that in his photographs. Suzy Parker, one of Avedon’s favourite models, expressed her admiration for the photographer by saying, “He’s the most wonderful man in the business, because he realizes that models are not just coat hangers.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 38). The first professional model that Avedon had the pleasure of working with was Dorian Leigh, who was one of the first ever models to inherit the term “super”. Miss Leigh was Avedon’s reigning model from 1948 to 1951, and Avedon’s most famous and influential photograph of her was an advert for Revlon nail polish (figure 12) where she is displayed wearing a luxurious jewelled gown and red cape. Avedon’s advertising work is some of the most influential in history, and he is known for using models in an unexpected way. In the 1980’s, Avedon’s images started to become more sexualised, which was extremely different to the photographer’s earlier work, featuring proper and restrained women in parks and posing with flowers. The mid 1970’s and 1980’s paved way for a Sexual Revolution, where sex became more acceptable and less of a taboo. An example of how the Sexual Revolution had an impact on his work is his advert for Calvin Klein Jeans (figure 13), where he featured a fifteen year old Brooke Shields asking, “Want to know what comes between me and my Calvin’s? Nothing.” This shows how versatile Avedon is as a photographer, and how he adapts his work to change as the times do. Also, his use of Shields in his ad campaign supports and highlights the overlapping and erasure in what or who constitutes a model.
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Figure 12: Dorian Leigh for Revlon nails ‘Fire and Ice’ advertisement by Richard Avedon, 1952.
Figure 13: Brooke Shields for Calvin Klein Jeans by Richard Avedon, 1980.
After Dorian Leigh married and quit modelling for good, Avedon went on to work with Dovima and created some of the most influential photographs of the twentieth century, including ‘Dovima with elephants’. Her beautiful pale skin and long thin limbs were perfect for Avedon’s style of photography, representing lines and curves through the body. She was dark, mysterious and sophisticated, and is considered one of the first super models. Avedon photographed Dovima during his early career, where most of his work represented his lost sister. There is a distinctive link between Dovima and Louise Avedon, and it is the sadness behind Dovima that attracted the photographer to her. Richard Avedon described the model as “the most remarkable and unconventional beauty of her time, but she was simply a creation; she didn’t exist as herself. Her name was made up, her face was made up, her attitude was made up.” (De Ribes, Dior by Avedon, 2015). Dovima must have believed this herself, as after an extremely successful career and allegedly being the highest paid model of her time, she quit modelling and worked as a waitress until she died of cancer in 1990.
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Alice Day After Dovima, Avedon went on to work with a stunning racy blonde named Sunny Harnett. Diana Vreeland, the then fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar, said she “resembled the ideal of the luxury-drenched woman of the world, with money to throw away,” and then added, “She wore chinchilla and diamonds as carelessly as if they really belonged to her, and Dick had a way of making her believe that they did.” (Sargeant, A woman entering a taxi in the rain, 1958). Possibly Avedon’s most successful photograph of Miss Harnett is her draped recklessly over a table at the Casino at Le Touquet (figure 14). This image has a very provocative style which is very different to Avedon’s other work in the fifties, but it represents the way the photographer adapted his style to the personality of his model. Avedon’s work in the 1950’s was portrayed as an extravagant show that he had crafted for his model to play the leading lady in. It is said he believed Miss Harnett was the epitome of sophistication, which is represented in his work as he had a way of making his models believe what he desired.
Figure 14: Sunny Harnett by Richard Avedon, Casino Le Touquet, 1954.
After Miss Harnett, Avedon went onto work with Dorian Leigh’s younger sister Suzy Parker, who’s spectacular looks and high-spirited attitude not only gave her the opportunity to take fashion pictures and advertisements for companies such as Pabst beer, but also made her a Hollywood movie star. Miss Parker was the perfect example of an ‘Avedon woman’: beautiful, interesting and incredibly intelligent. She was an amateur photographer herself, and she could immediately visualise what the photographer was trying to create and even give suggestions of her own. Avedon noticed that during different eras, different parts of the body became relevant. “It was Suzy’s mouth more than any other part of her body, and it was Marilyn
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Alice Day Monroe’s mouth,” Avedon said, “It started with the energy that came in laughter.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 38). In the sixties with models like Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton, the emphasis was all on the eyes, and then towards the end of the sixties the focus shifted to the legs. The first non-Caucasian model that Avedon photographed and one of the first to appear in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar was the half Chinese and half Portuguese China Machado. Miss Machado started to pose for Avedon in the late 1950’s, when Avedon’s style of photography was becoming more experimental and movement was key. Although Miss Machado appeared in top magazines and was a runway model for Givenchy, the time was not ready for her, and after being told she would never be a commercial model, she joined Harper’s Bazaar as a fashion editor. She continued to model for Avedon until much later in his career and they became close friends. In the 1960’s, it was much easier for magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar to accept a more classic style of beauty, for example, women like Audrey Hepburn, who had an ethereal and almost virginal quality about them. “If a girl walked in with a small head and a long throat, like a swan, there was an immediate set of gut reactions and emotions to that as a very beautiful thing,” Avedon said. “Sexually beautiful girls in those days were not considered beautiful enough to be in Harper’s Bazaar.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 38). Whilst working at Harper’s Bazaar, Avedon worked closely with the fashion editor, Diana Vreeland. In the early 1960’s, before Vreeland left to work for Vogue (where she was named editor in chief later that year) she let her imagination go wild and alongside Avedon created some of the most influential collections of photographs of the 1960’s. Among her fantasies were eighteenth-century sphinxes, which Avedon interpreted by posing his models crouched and immobile with hair teased out to replicate the headdress on the hieratic creature of Giza. These copies of the Sphinx, he said, “became enormously influential. It was the first time hair was ever treated like that. No one looked like that. This was obviously a fantasy. Within five years the beehive, that ratting, back-combing, teasing, and then smoothing of hair, was on every single girl on the street and woman in the world.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 38). Avedon’s work was incredibly influential and his images of women become emblems of their time. Avedon left Harper’s Bazaar
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Alice Day and joined Vreeland at Vogue where he began working with models who were described as having “interesting” faces, or more specifically, “interesting” noses. As Vreeland herself had a larger nose than most, it was her unspoken agenda to move the goalposts of beauty away from the conventional stereotypes. Vreeland asked Avedon to photograph women such as Cher, Barbra Streisand and Anjelica Huston, which was much to Avedon’s pleasure as these women contained vast amounts of personality which is exactly what the photographer desired in a model. “Diana Vreeland’s ability to discover a beauty who hadn’t been considered beautiful before,” Avedon said, “went hand in hand with mine. In my years at Vogue, it was Diana who kept making me stars.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 59). One of the stars that Avedon helped to create was the daughter of Ingrid Bergman, (one of the photographer’s previous muses) Isabella Rossellini, who was a sceptic about Avedon’s talents at first, but after her mother insisted that it would change her life, she met with the photographer. Avedon showed Rossellini the images he had taken of her mother, and she said, “I could see how Mama posed. It was the first time I thought modelling is acting.” Avedon told her, “I’m not photographing beautiful noses, beautiful faces, because I don’t know what they are. Anybody can be beautiful. I’m photographing emotions. You have to give me emotions.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 60). Their first sittings led to three consecutive Vogue covers in 1982 and also led to Rossellini’s advertising contract with Lancôme, which made her a millionaire. Her mother was right: it changed her life. After Rossellini, Avedon went on to work with the seventeen year old Penelope Tree, who considered herself a ‘freak’, amongst her extremely successful and high society family. “I felt like an alien,” she said, but it was this that made Avedon want to know more. Makeup became much more experimental in the sixties, and this is reflected in Tree’s style. Polly Mellen, Vogue fashion editor, helped the model create a new version of her dead-white makeup which she regularly adorned, and created a more stylised version of what a seventeen year old with a Mary Quant makeup palette would create. Most of Avedon’s work with the model, also involved collaborations with Mellen and the hair stylist, Ara Gallant. “He had the ability to make you feel like you were the only person in the world,” Tree said, “even though there were ten other
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Alice Day people in the room who felt exactly the same way.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 77). Avedon told Harper’s Bazaar, “I always tried to make the models think that they were the photographer; the more I could involve them in the creative process, the deeper their work became.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 77). Tree was an icon of her time, and Avedon used her unique look to create eccentric photos powered by what Tree calls Avedon’s “effervescent intensity.” In figure 15, you can see the model wearing a futuristic metal mask designed by Ungaro, looking like a Maori idol. Avedon loved to dress her up and play with props and accessories to bring out the models eccentric side. Tree was an evolutionary leap from the delicate and sophisticated women Avedon had been photographing for Harper’s Bazaar less than a decade earlier.
Figure 15: Penelope Tree by Richard Avedon in mask designed by Ungaro, 1968.
One of Avedon’s most intense photographic relationships was with the model, Veruschka. Standing at six feet tall, she was a stunning beauty with impossibly long limbs. Avedon described her as, “the most beautiful woman in the world” in an essay in Vogue’s May 1972 issue. Avedon revealed that he noticed everything about her, even her temperature: “Her skin is litmus paper for her feelings. She’s all made up and ready, and, as we sit together, her skin gets very warn in colour, and then suddenly, it drains. The second the colour leaves her face, I know she’s ready to work.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 77). Avedon was obsessed with Veruschka; his eyes would follow her everywhere, not just in the studio, but how she acted on the street. He immersed himself in her to know all of her characteristics which helped him to create some of the most incredible images of the early seventies. Veruschka remembers Avedon’s “very vivid observing… He was always totally with you, we were always connected.” (Buck, J. J. 2013. Avedon: Women. Page 78). In 15
Alice Day March of 1972, Avedon had a Yoga teacher show the model different basic positions to use in a sitting, and suddenly Veruschka felt that the position needed to be “more intense and more weird”, so she put her feet behind her ears and the yoga teacher was appalled. “This is the most advanced position,” he said, “You should never do that,” but Veruschka was completely relaxed. This led to one of the most astounding photos in Avedon’s career (figure 16). After several more sittings in 1973, the pair never worked together again.
Figure 16: Veruschka by Richard Avedon, 1972.
Figure 17: June Leaf by Richard Avedon, Nova Scotia, 17th July 1975.
Lauren Hutton and Anjelica Huston modelled for Avedon for a short period after Veruschka, but “all of a sudden”, Huston said, “his pictures started to be less about the upbeat, the serendipitous, glamorous, airy, bright, sexy, unweighted free woman – the freedom and exuberance of Suzy Parker being chased by paparazzi – to become something more profound and deeper and more monolithic.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 120). Avedon was looking for something new, something more exciting than the fashion
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Alice Day models he had been photographing, and he found that in June Leaf. In 1975, for his first commercial gallery exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in New York, Avedon set out to take portraits. His first stop was the home of author Robert Frank, in Nova Scotia, and it was there that Avedon’s discovered Frank’s wife, June Leaf, an artist with a big soul that had led to her having a tough life. In Avedon’s portrait (figure 17), the stresses of daily life are evident on the models face, which links back to the photographer’s previous work, ‘Dovima with Elephants’, where age is a significant theme. Leaf looks like someone who has lived, suffered and accepted. This image became one of Avedon’s most famous pieces of work, and redefined the face of beauty. Avedon said, “My picture of June is the most beautiful picture of a woman I have ever taken.” (Buck, Avedon: Women, 2013: Page 120). Throughout Avedon’s career his representation of women has developed from the idealistic fantasy that he created of the perfect woman, inspired by the memory of his lost sister, into the fun and flirty sixties that were full of movement and personality, and finally into the darker and deeper portraits which ended his career. These images portrayed the stresses of life and old age, perhaps mirroring what the photographer was feeling towards the end of his life, but also reflecting the themes in his earlier work. Towards the end of Avedon’s career, his work became more meaningful and more profound, but throughout his life he has created some of the most iconic and influential images of their time, which have played a huge part in shaping society and redefining the feminine ideal. Even after his death, Avedon still has an undeniable influence on what we perceive as beautiful.
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