Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon - Darkness and Light (American Masters) (1996)

Director: Helen Whitney
PBS American Masters: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: April 2, 2002 
Format: Color, NTSC 
ASIN: B00005Y71Y 
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Vividly portrayed in this American Masters Special, photographer Richard Avedon shoots for two different 
worlds. Primarily, he is a fashion photographer, having worked for various magazines for more than 50 years. 

Of particular note is the description of photographing Natassja Kinski, a shoot that took two hours of her 
lying naked on a cement floor as they tried to coax a snake up her body. As a fashion photographer, Avedon 
became known for his sense of movement and the energy he captured in each image; he gets exquisite models 
to leap, move, and flip their hair. 

His second, and perhaps lesser-known, body of work is art photography, including portraits of the famous and 
the unknown, with a signature style of photographing his sitters on a white background with no props. 

This documentary ably captures the tension between these two directions in his work by overlaying the positive 
and negative viewpoints about his photography in a collage of voiceovers. 

We learn how Avedon views his role as a photographer, and that for him the end result captures "the death of 
the moment." Also included are the controversial images of his dying father. This program aptly depicts this 
highly creative man exposed through his work as vulnerable, obsessed, and a perfectionist. 

This 81-minute-long program will interest a broad audience, from those interested in fashion, people of our times, 
the history of the 20th century, artists and art historians, and photography in general. 

Anne Barclay Morgan 
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Helen Whitney's production, "Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light", provides a comprehensive overview 
of the career, and also to some extent, of the personal life of this exceptional photographer. The program 
details Mr. Avedon's work, which over the past fifty years has attempted to "nurture perceptions that most 
people discard". 

The first thirty minutes of this film describe Mr. Avedon's journey, from his work in Paris fashion magazines 
in the year 1946, to around 1966 when he became temporarily disillusioned with the social life within the 
fashion world. The next twenty minutes work to describe his growth as a portrait photographer. 

During this period, the human face becomes the "primary focus of attention" of Mr. Avedon's eye, with portrait 
styles ranging from explosive multiple exposures to serene comments on human dignity. Most of the work of 
this period was photographed against Mr. Avedon's "signature" solid white background.

The documentary then becomes somewhat more personal in describing Mr. Avedon's relationship with his father, 
a Russian Jewish immigrant, during the final stages of his father's struggle with terminal cancer. Photographs 
of his dying father were made, however, thoughts regarding possible "invasions of personal privacy" and the 
meaning of the quality of their relationship at that time are explored.

The program describes Mr. Avedon's trip to the American West, while recuperating from health problems. 
There, he made photographs of working class people, drifters and generally those who exist outside of the gaze 
of the mass media. 

The final thirty minutes of the program become more philosophical in nature, with meditations on Mr. Avedon's 
relationship to his subjects and reflections on his reputation within the world of photography.

The subjects of Mr. Avedon's photographic work represent people both known to the general public and those 
unknown. These images serve as unique documents of the diversity of human experience in much of the later part 
of the twentieth century. 

So lovers of photography, and of the arts in general, will not want to miss this captivating documentary.

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