"We all perform. It's what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintentionally. It's a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we'd like to be." --Richard Avedon, 1974
The preeminent stars and artists of the performing arts from the second half of the 20th century offered their greatest gifts?and, sometimes, their inner lives?to Richard Avedon. More than 200 are portrayed in Performance, many in photographs that have been rarely or never seen before. Of course, the great stars light the way: Hepburn and Chaplin, Monroe and Garland, Brando and Sinatra. But here too are the actors and comedians, pop stars and divas, musicians and dancers, artists in all mediums with public lives that were essentially performances, who stand at the pinnacle of our cultural achievement.
The celebrated author and critic John Lahr offers an elegant assessment of Avedon?s achievement. Four supremely talented artists from the performing arts?Mike Nichols, Andre Gregory, Mitsuko Uchida, and Twyla Tharp?contribute lively and moving memoirs about their collaborations with Avedon.
Customer Reviews:
Performance: Richard Avedon December 12, 2008 0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I knew Richard, he was a great inspiration for all photographers, we all admired him for his work and as a person, we miss him, so this book is truly a wonderful memoriam to a great and inspirational man, I love it. Michael Dunne, London
Comments by Michael Calum Jacques author of '1st Century Radical'. November 25, 2008 3 out of 9 found this review helpful
This fascinating book could be described as a collaborative effort and can best be enjoyed for what it is when we know something of the variety of characters contained within its pages.
Richard Avedon was born in to a Jewish-Russian family in New York on May 15, 1944 He commenced his career as a photographer in 1942, taking identification pictures of the seamen. In 1946, Avedon established his own studio and producing material for a list of illustrious publications which includied Vogue magazine. Soon thereafter he became the main photographer for Harper's Bazaar. A main characteristic of Avedon's style of work was that his photographs conveyed three dimensional models with vivacity; laughing, smiling, or, at other times, being `snapped' whilst involved in a particular activity.
Avedon later broadened his repertoire and even photographed patients of sanitariums, as well as more `mainstream' subjects such as protesters of the Vietnam War and the demise of the Berlin Wall. Avedon also produced a couple of distinctive - and now famous -shots of The Beatles as well as the portrait material contained within the The White Album (1968). Sadly, Richard Avedon died while shooting an assignment for The New Yorker in San Antonio, Texas, on October 1, 2004. Even then, at this advanced stage of his career, he was still a formidable, original, creative force, undertaking and allocating time for new, challenging projects of divers sorts.
So, with such a pedigree - and we have not mentioned Avedon's fascination with other groups and `types' within society, nor details of his connection with other elements of the press or publishing industry here - it is easy to understand why any volume, collaborative or otherwise, from such a fascinating, iconic photographer (and this reviewer is not given to using such terms lightly) .
This volume can be recommended for a number of reasons. It features work produced by Avedon in the life and works of members of the performing arts; to be more precise, John Lahr is the son of actor Bert Lahr, but is well accredtited in his own right. He is now the Senior Drama Critic of The New Yorker and, in 2002, became the first drama critic ever to win a Tony Award. Mike Nichols has won an American Emmy Award, an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and also a Tony Award (as stage and film director, writer, and producer). Andre Gregory is both an American director and actor. He appeared as the title character in My Dinner with Andre. Mitsuko Uchida is a classical pianist, perhaps best, but by no means exclusively, known for her performances of Mozart (especially the Sonata in C), Beethoven, and Schubert. Her father has been the Japanese ambassador to Austria. Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer and is the author of `Push Comes to Shove' (1999) and `The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life' (2006).
As a person who engages with images as types of sources, reflecting stages and epochs of history, this reviewer enjoyed this volume and can warmly recommend it even though the `images' are more biographical in some ways. It will not be to everyone's taste, but it undoubtedly offers a fascinating and quite compendious view on the subjects outlined and captured. Each reader and viewer will most probably take something valuable to their own `self', image and portrait.
Michael Calum Jacques (author of 1st Century Radical: the shadowy origins of the man who became known as Jesus Christ)
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