An Autobiography

An amazing collection of Avedon’s best work spanning his entire career. For this book, Avendon and his team recovered and redeveloped every single negative he has taken, then winnowed down his best from that selection. This contains images from his “In the American West” series, haunting photos from the catacombs of Italy, beautiful blurred images of the streets of New York City, a series from the mental word of a Louisiana hospital, and portraits of some of the great power-brokers of the 60’s and 70’s, presumably from his time at Harpers Bazaar and Vogue.

This is a self-described review of Avedon’s life, but it is not at all linear. That is on purpose; “I haven’t lived chronologically. No one does.” There is, however, a clear thematic thread through each image — Avedon’s ability to capture eyes, and the stories behind and within them, like no one else, and his treatment of a cattle rancher or truck driver equally as complex and immaculate as that of a Maclom X, Monroe, Nureyev, Kissinger or Joplin portrait.