Edited by The Fashion Web

Christie’s Paris and The Richard Avedon Foundation are going to be auctioning off 60 of the photographer’s works on
November 20th. This is going to be the largest grouping of Avedon’s
works to come to market. The auction will endow philanthropy supporting
photography.
The masterpiece of the auction is the enormous “Dovima With Elephants”
(1955), which hung in Avedon’s studio for 30 years. The iconic shot is
expected to fetch a half-million of the group’s $4 million to $6
million estimate. There will also be famous images of Verushka, Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton.
There is hope for those who can’t make it to Paris…The Museum of Fine Arts Boston
is running “Avedon Fashion: 1944-2000” (through Jan. 17), the first
retrospective focused solely on his fashion work since 1978. Being that
he was a portraitist, his photos are rarely about the clothes. A 1967
portrait of Audrey Hepburn in a black headdress elongates her neck, à
la E.T. In 1998, he shot Carmen Kass and Audrey Marnay unrecognizably swathed in wool by Hussein Chalayan.
Later in his career, Avedon created his extensive New Yorker portfolios and the Versace campaigns. A 1993 image features a nude Marcus Schenkenberg in the role of an abducting Greek god, tugging the hand of reluctant mortal Stephanie Seymour.
Whenever there is an opportunity to appreciate Richard Avedon’s amazing work, it is worth it. I just wish I
had $500,000 to spend on one of his pieces…at least there are books and
exhibitions for now…