From the Introduction
On the occasion of her starring role as King Lear on Broadway, the great British actor Glenda Jackson, by then eighty-two years old, asserted that Shakespeare remains the most con- temporary dramatist in the world “because he really only ever asks three questions: Who are we? What are we? Why are we?” These same existential questions underscore the body of portraiture produced by Richard Avedon in the second half of the twentieth century. We are all of the same species, he was saying, and with each portrait he made, regardless of whether it was of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Marilyn Monroe, Truman Capote, or a drifter in the American West, he rendered a specimen of our species to be contemplated in the context of his ongoing catalog of humanity, prompting us to consider ourselves over and over again, as if in mirror image: Who are we? What are we? Why are we?And, yet, in Avedon’s lifetime, he was dismissed as a “celebrity photographer”—an intellectual slur that stuck to him as gum on his shoe, and to which he was often quick to reply: “Don’t think about who they are; just look at their faces.”
REVIEWS, EXCERPTS, ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS
“Richard Avedon, a Photographer Who Wanted to Outrun the Glitz Factor”
—book review by Dwight Garner, The New York Times, October 19, 2020.
“Upper West Side Story: The Dazzling Rise of Richard Avedon”
—book review by Caroline Weber, The New York Times Book Review, October 16, 2020.
“Avedon Ascendant”
—excerpt from “What Becomes a Legend Most,” Vanity Fair, October 2020.
“Excerpt: Photography critic Philip Gefter’s new biography on monumental photographer Richard Avedon”
—The Toronto Globe and Mail, November 13, 2024.
“Richard Avedon, Marilyn Monroe, and Hollywood’s Blond Mania”
—excerpt from “What Becomes a Legend Most,” Lit Hub, October 27, 2020.
“Richard Avedon’s Wall-Size Ambitions”
—by Philip Gefter, The New York Times, October 16, 2020.
Why Richard Avedon’s Work Has Never Been More Relevant”
—by Philip Gefter, The New York Times, November 13, 2017.
“Who Was Richard Avedon”
—Brian Wallis interview with Philip Gefter, Aperture.
“The Real Richard Avedon”
—Christopher Mahoney Interview with Philip Gefter, Phillips Auction House.