The photographer’s choice of a pose underscores the vulnerability of the young Capote.
Avedon’s picture features the young man, his torso unclothed, eyes closed, arms back, and chin raised. The two were part of the New York art and culture scene and shared a number of friends and acquaintances. His 1948 novel, “ Other Voices, Other Rooms,” had been published when the author was just 24, and was met with critical acclaim and controversy for its openly gay protagonist. At the time, Capote was a rising literary star. His studio portraits shimmered with elegance and, through a lighting technique he developed that he dubbed the “beauty light,” Avedon mesmerized the magazine’s readers.Īvedon first photographed Capote in a solo portrait in 1955, when the writer was just 31 years old. His fashion photographs staged glamorous models donning the latest fashions and living it up in exotic Parisian locales. Friends and collaboratorsĪvedon, who was born in 1923 and died in 2004, began his career in the 1940s as a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. In the later picture, the writer’s hard-lived years weigh on his face and suggest that age has dulled him. One highlights Capote’s youth and sensuality. The two images, which are on display in Milan side by side, show Avedon’s relentless scrutiny. Avedon made a radically different pair of portraits of Capote: the earlier in 1955, when both men were in their early 30s, and a later one in 1974 when the two were in midlife.
One of his subjects, the writer Truman Capote, became a collaborator and friend. The highly detailed pictures are an invitation to scrutinize the photograph and, of course, the person Avedon reveals. In his photographs, gesture, expression, clothing and facial features all convey information about the subject – their eyebrow hairs, wrinkles, makeup application, teeth and gaze all tell a story. The most recent show, “ Richard Avedon: Relationships,” is now being exhibited in Milan.Īvedon’s portraits include so many rich details that they can feel more revealing than seeing someone in person. I curated my first exhibition of his work in 2007. What obligation does a portrait photographer have to their subject? Is it their duty to cast that person in the best light, or the most revealing light?Īs chief curator at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography, I have worked with the images of fashion and portrait photographer Richard Avedon on a handful of occasions during my 16-year tenure.
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