The Real Richard Avedon

Christopher Mahoney | Phillips | 3rd October 2020

Avedon craved art world respect but faced an array of prejudices – photography was a “bastard medium”; studio images were “less serious” than street photography. Eventually, his “visually radical” portrait photography conquered all. “His signature portrait style, the formality of a straight-on figure against a white backdrop, sober expression is … not only a document, but a monument of that individual”.