Customer Reviews

In the American West

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In 1978 glamour photographer Richard Avedon shot some portraits in the MidWest. The Amon Carter Museum in Forth Worth, Texas, asked him to follow up on those, and Avedon set out for the American West to portray what amounts to the reverse side of the American dream. The project ran until 1984. By then, Avedon had photographed 752 people in 17 states; a selection of 123 portraits constituted the eventual exhibition and the collection in this book. The illusion of equality and great opportunities for all, and the Hollywood-slash-John wayne dream of the good old pioneering West - a dream shared by a surprising lot of westerners themselves - are effectively shattered by these haunting portraits of barmaids, drifters, ranch-hands, prisoners, mental patients, Hutterites, coal miners, slaughter house workers, 12 year old girls looking twice their age, (sub) teenage boys handling guns and snakes, oil-rig workers, and many others alongside them. There is hardly a face here that is not marked by toil and hardship, the stark black-and-white detailing every crevice, freckle, rimple, mole and scar. As one commentator noted, the West is often represented by its landscape; here the faces are the landscape of the West, and, one might well suspect, its true landscape. Of course, similar portraits of ordinary people living under harsh conditions could be taken in many places in the world; the portraits in this volume take a significant part of their impact from the fact that they come from that "greatest nation on earth", a land associated with glamour, enterprise, success and outward appearances, that we are used to seeing represented rather differently than we find it here.

Here, the great heroic cowboy dream is reduced to a shiny, oversized rodeo buckle worn by a skinny boy. Yet there is nothing condescending or patronizing about these images, on the contrary. The facial expressions mostly speak of deep earnestness and dogged determination, rarely of sadness, and most of the people we meet in this book exude an extraordinary power and pride despite their often dishevelled looks and sweat- and dirtstained clothes (others, however, have donned their best finery). But there is anger, threat, and undisguised, at times overwhelming machismo too, as well as an occasional subject who seems on the verge of tears, like oil field worker Bubba Morrison. The portraits are painfuly candid, often moving, and always artistically well-considered and visually beautiful. They engender instant curiosity about the stories behind these faces - only a very little of that is satisfied in the Background section at the end of the book; we are given a little more in Laura Wilson's delightful volume "Avedon at work in the American west", which is worthwhile considering in addition to the work itself. The subjects are all portrayed against an anonymous white background; nothing is romanticized, nothing is allowed to divert our attention from the sitter him- or herself. At times, the brutality of life in the spare, rough country where these people live is heart-wrenchingly palpable. Richard Wheatcroft, a handsome young Montana rancher was photographed twice two years apart, and it is harrowing to see the hardening of his features over such a short timespan (his portrait of 17 years later that's in Laura Wilson's book, comes as a downright shock, the 41 year-old looking at least in his mid-fifites, a sad, worn out look in his eyes, his face notched by the many blows life has dealt him). More dark portent comes with the highly arresting shots of skinned steer-heads and slaughtered sheep that appear later in the book. Here, the black and white takes away any sense of shock or revulsion, and lends a melancholy beauty even to these stark subjects.

The book itself is beautifully produced: large size, with a cloth cover protected by a thick, transparant plastic dustwrapper. The matte paper is thick and opaque, preventing show-through. It includes a large fold-out group portrait. (My copy unfortunately has a few pages where surplus ink has splattered onto the photograph, but I assume that is the exception, not the rule). In all, a possession to cherish, and highly recommended.

My son gave me this book years ago as a birthday gift. It's not one that I look at every day. In truth , sometimes years go by before I pick it up again. Always, the images beg to define their stories. I often wonder as the years pass, what has happened to those portrayed. Only once, as I recall, did Avedon return to shoot the subject twice. That image is of a young cowboy. Avedon initially captures the hope and wonder of what his future holds. The second image taken but a few years later already shows much of that hope diminished with the realization of this is all there is. Perhaps I read too much into it, but I think that's the power of the images. We read individually into them and perhaps with more than a little bias come to our own conclusions. Anytime I need a shot of creativity to look at our world and the people and stories within so that I too can try to capture on film, or now digitally, I need look no further than Avedon's book.

When I was a teen in the early eighties, I went to see the exhibit of these photos in SF, CA with my mother. From what I understand, Richard Avedon traveled the American West, photographing people that he came across in his everyday travels. They weren't beautiful supermodels, they weren't made up actors, they were real live people. I remember like it was yesterday, the huge black and white photos included the tired and haggard teen girl on the cover, a snake handler holding a disemboweled rattlesnake, a grizzled and mean looking prisoner with jail tattoos, insane asylum patients with wild eyed stares, scruffy drifters and many more. After the show, I talked my mom into buying the book for me, and took it home, where it's been a prized posession ever since. Every time anyone comes over to my home and checks it out, it always opens up a discussion. When it went out of print, I know that I was disappointed as folks always wanted a copy after seeing my own, and I think it's great that it's been re-issued. If you are a fan of photography that captures the stark realism of the human spirit, don't miss out on this book.

I have never seen anythink like what I saw in this book. The photos are haunting and show how hard some peoples lifes are. I just finished ordering 3 more of his books, wish I could afford his "Autobiography" book.

In the day of everyone carrying a camera via snap shot or cell phone, this is the real definition of photography of the 20th century. After his hospitalization Avedon took off to the America West to photograph the real west not the John Wayne type depicted by film and TV. This insightful photographer came to the West with an 8x10 Deardorff and photographed those that would never be picked to reflect the American west. Avedon chose workers in the fashion of Irving Penn but used available north light and the only equipment was a reflector. Looking at the huge prints would change your perception of print making. The Mormon Father and Son and how he wrote on the print with a grease pencil to instruct the printer how to burn and dodge a print that already looked amazing. How precise Avedon was with his exposure development of film and finally the prints being so carefully made. In the same way that Penn,( who made his own silver and platinum prints) are awe inspiring. Those who were cast away by society were celebrated by Mr. Avedon in a way that tells a visual story in this master piece of a book. The DVD where he visits some of the subjects of this book is just a treat to watch as well. I think it was Diana Vreeland who said " I can't picture the world without Richard Avedon". I don't think it could be said any more eloquently. My signed Avedon books are very special to me. Having met Richard was a moment I will always treasure.

Christopher Voelker

The written word word can not describe the impact on photography and society with this masterpiece.

In the American West by Richard Avedon is a splendid book with amazing, impressive portraits of 'ordinary people'. Great!

If you were to own just one Richard Avedon book then this is the one to have. It is a true artist's book that consists of photos taken as a unified body of work. There have been many compilation books published since his death but this is the collection he will be most remembered for. This edition is easily the best as the reproductions and printing were done with the most current technology available. For any student or collector of photography this is an absolute must-have.

I first became aware of Avedon's project to photograph ordinary people in the western states when I was lucky enough to see an exhibition of the original prints at Stanford University's art museum in 2007. The flawless gelatin silver prints were enormous in size (the figures were life size) and striking in their power. I went back to that exhibition several times just to take it in.

I immediately ordered the accompanying book. It is an excellent representation of the images. The book's format is large enough to begin to see the detail of the images. While it has an interesting summary of the project in the back, the book lets the photographs speak for themselves. Some of the larger works are printed as fold out pages. I have a fairly extensive photo book library, but this book is one of my favorites.

Whatever opinion you may have about Avedon's other work with celebrities and fashion, this book will really bring home how great of an artist he was.

I remember seeing this book on its release in the 1980s. I couldn't afford it at the time, but I never forgot those images. Looking at them again, I can see the re-release of this group of Richard Avedon's work was fully justified.
These portraits are raw - each man, woman and child is exposed. Avedon recognised that each of the individuals in these portraits were an entity unto themselves. Their lives are in their faces; there is no need for props or pictorial backgrounds. Everyone was photographed against a simple sheet of white paper - a groundbreaking approach for this genre at the time. No staging, nothing concealed, nothing enhanced and there is no evidence of tweeking.
These photos distressed the romantic notion of 'the west' that prevailed until the late 1980s, and in turn contributed to its redefinition in popular culture. I still find myself looking at these pictures over and over again, wondering about the fate of some of these folks. This is another benefit of a book like this - it poses questions which cannot be easily answered - what happened to these people?
I'm so very thankful I got myself a copy. If you, like myself, are working on building a photography book collection, then this is an essential addition.