Portraits from the American West — by Richard Avedon
, The Sunday Times
In 1979 Richard Avedon was commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, in Fort Worth, Texas, to capture his vision of the American West. The New Yorker spent the next five and a half years travelling through 17 states and conducting 752 sittings with working-class subjects — a radical departure from his usual work for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Nearly a thousand portraits were taken during a period characterised by deindustrialisation and recession. The result was In the American West, a collection of 103 black-and-white photographs that are among the most striking of Avedon’s career; he died aged 81 in 2004. To mark its 40th anniversary, the book is being reissued, having been out of print for more than a decade.
In the American West by Richard Avedon (Abrams £80) is published on Thursday
Charlene Van Tighem, physical therapist, Augusta, Montana, 1983
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
David Beason, shipping clerk, Denver, Colorado, 1981
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
Blue Cloud Wright, slaughterhouse worker, Omaha, Nebraska, 1983
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
Petra Alvarado, factory worker, El Paso, Texas, on her birthday, April 22, 1982
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
Boyd Fortin, 13-year-old, Sweetwater, Texas, 1979
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
Sandra Bennett, 12-year-old, Rocky Ford, Colorado, 1980
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
From left: Loretta, Loudilla and Kay Johnson, co-presidents, Loretta Lynn Fan Club, Wild Horse, Colorado, 1983
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
Dave Timothey, nuclear fallout victim, Orem, Utah, 1980
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
Roger Tims, Jim Duncan, Leonard Markley, Don Belak, coal miners, Reliance, Wyoming, 1979
RICHARD AVEDON, © THE RICHARD AVEDON FOUNDATION
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