What Becomes a Legend Most - Philip Gefter's Second Biography Chronicles the Glamorous Life of Richard Avedon

 

Philip Gefter's second Biography chronicles the glamorous life of jet setting Fashion Photographer Richard Avedon.

What Becomes a Legend Most Details the Life of an Influential Fashion Photographer

"My photographs don't go below the surface. I have great faith in surfaces. A good one is full of clues." - Richard Avedon

Biographer and former New York Times Editor Philip Gefter has tackled another larger-than-life subject with his second Biography, What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon. Although chock full of details and juicy gossip, I felt there was something flat about Gefter's subject. This likely stems from the choices I have made in my own life as a gay man, but I found Gefter's first Biography of Photography Collector Sam Wagstaff to be a far more engaging read.

Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 - October 1, 2004) was a larger-than-life celebrity and Fashion photographer who got his start working at Harper's Bazaar under Carmel Snow. He would go on to work for both Vogue and The New Yorker. His signature visual style involved placing the subject in front of a plain white backdrop and photographing them in a way which revealed all their features with merciless clarity. Another of his innovations was the idea of, 'going big' by blowing up portraits until the photographs became larger than life size, staring down at you from Museum walls.

Though Gefter does go into some detail about the photographs, the book understandably dives much deeper into Avedon himself, depicting the man with the same granular accuracy that his pictures became known for.

The portrait that emerges is of someone obsessed with his place in the hierarchy of New York high society, and, later in life, with being accepted as an Artist within an equally rarefied world of Museum Curators.

An example from a passage that describes Avedon at an opening for a show of his work in September 1975:

"People swarmed around "Dick" - as everyone called Avedon - worshipful in their genuflections and hyperbolic with praise. Dressed in a three-piece suit, the man of the hour - fifty-two years old and not very tall - was easily identifiable by his flowing salt-and-pepper hair. He was accustomed to the limelight and handled the attention with seasoned insouciance, smiling gratefully, demurring appropriately, laughing at witty asides, the gradations of his acknowledgment calibrated to the individual's designated place in his intricate and ever fluctuating hierarchy of regard, affection, or usefulness."

This passage neatly sums up what left me cold after finishing this bible sized volume.

Most of Avedon's life was made up of calculated moves to lift himself up in the elite pecking order of downtown Manhattan. Later in life his strategy focused on how to have himself regarded as an Artist. Which was a struggle for Avedon because most of his money was made as a commercial Fashion photographer.

Where What Becomes a Legend Most succeeds is when it contrasts Avedon with other, more experimental, photographers of his generation, such as Diane Arbus. Arbus, whose life ended tragically at age 48, was known for photographing Freaks and Outsiders. She is quoted in the Biography as saying of her own style:

"Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. They made me feel a mixture of shame and awe. There's a quality of legend about Freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've passed their test in life. They're Aristocrats."

It's certainly a statement I can identify with. 

My own, admittedly limited, adventures in Photography involved designing a website to showcase Glad Day Bookshop founder Jearld Moldenhauer's work. His own 'in the moment' street photography is more to my taste than Avedon's premeditated and highly stylized creations.

That said, if you enjoyed reading Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe, you will likely enjoy Gefter's most recent work. He includes details both large and small, and his writing style is fluid. If nothing else, What Becomes a Legend Most, which clocks in at 570 pages, will help you pass the time during this seemingly unending Pandemic that we all must endure.