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.

On Berlin

Berlin has Risen and Fallen More Than Once. We're About to See it Rise Again. 

Sunset over Schlüterstraße. Berlin, Germany. 01.19.2017

Germany has come a long way since the days of Otto von Bismarck and his famous, "Blood and Iron" speech. If one were to trace Germany, and Berlin's, history on a graph it might resemble a Sine Wave. 

Going up with Bismarck's unification of Germany, and then down with Kaiser Wilhelm II and the First World War. With the ascension of Hitler and the Nazi Party a brief period of economic growth followed by the destruction and death of World War II.

Having just spent a month in Berlin, I think it's safe to say the city is coming 'up' once more. There are construction projects underway in several neighbourhoods, and Germany can only become a more desirable place to do business in. Particularly with the United States under Trump being so unpredictable for at least the next 4 years.  

Fragments of Berlin's history can be found everywhere; sometimes you almost trip over them because there are so many. It's almost impossible to understand the Berlin of 2017 without knowing something about the city's long and sometimes dark history. Reading Rory MacLean's Berlin: Imagine a City sheds light on this history by using each chapter to tell the story of a person who did something of consequence while living in Berlin.

Many of MacLean's subjects are famous - Marlene Dietrich, David Bowie, and to a lesser extent Christopher Isherwood are all household names. 

Dietrich made her career as a film star who fled Nazi Germany for the United States. You can still find plenty of artwork, including one of Berlin's famous bear statues, devoted to her at the Intercontinental Hotel on Budapester Straße. 

David Bowie arrived in Berlin in 1976 to kick a Cocaine addiction and re-energize himself creatively. The result was his 'Berlin Trilogy' of Low, Heroes, and Lodger. At the Hansa Studios located at 38 Köthener Straße he made wonderfully edgy electronic music with Brian Eno and others that has stood the test of time.

My personal favourite chapter of Berlin: Imagine a City is devoted to author Christopher Isherwood. While in Berlin he lived near Nollendorfplatz, now one of the city's defined gaybourhoods. There Isherwood wrote Goodbye to Berlin, which depicts a city on the edge of becoming something else under the Nazis. Much is hinted at, and deeper meaning is left for the reader to piece together.

Part of the point of coming to Berlin for Isherwood (and many other gay men) was the opportunity to act on his desires and live the life he wanted for himself.

As MacLean writes: "Isherwood didn't want to live forever in his head. He wanted to touch, and be touched. He was a sensual boy, hemmed in by an English timidity of physical contact... (In Berlin) Isherwood could touch and be touched, stroke and sink into surrender." 

Today Berlin is still a place where you can do this, regardless of whether you're gay or straight. The wonderful directness of many Germans, together with the existence of certain clubs and venues, is a gift. The emphasis here is on having sex and a good time - not on endless game playing. Which is as it should be.

Even with the armies of tour guides and pieces of history all around you, what's worth paying attention to most is Berlin's future. Having been there for a month, it`s not hard to imagine a time when Berlin is the beating heart of Europe. A capitol for tech savvy, open minded, curious people to grow and thrive in. 

To all the Earthbound Extraterrestrials and Misfits reading this - take note. 

Berlin is a place for you.