“I saw the elephants under an enormous skylight. . . I then had to find the right dress and I knew there was a potential here for a kind of dream image.”
—Richard Avedon
In a career replete with remarkable images, Richard Avedon’s (1923-2004) Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, stands out as a masterpiece. Made in 1955 on assignment for Harper’s Bazaar, this tour-de-force encapsulates Avedon’s uniquely inventive approach. Few photographers working for the fashion magazines in the 1950s had Avedon’s intuitive ability to create an image that was novel and exciting but also served the editorial purpose of showcasing couture. With its brilliant mélange of disparate elements, Dovima with Elephants sets an entirely new bar for fashion photography.
In August of 1955, Avedon travelled to Paris to photograph the couture collections. At the fortuitous invitation of fellow photographer Sam Shaw to the set of a movie he was shooting, Avedon visited the historic Cirque d’Hiver. He was given a tour that included the Cirque’s animal enclosures and immediately grasped their potential as the setting for a photoshoot. On the day of the shoot, Avedon masterfully choreographed an ensemble of stylists, assistants and animal trainers, along with the American model, Dovima, who was sheathed in a sleek gown with flowing sash designed by the young Yves Saint Laurent for the House of Dior. The resulting image of the elegant model posed against the massive, rough forms of the elephants is both incongruous and exhilarating. Avedon was able to see the elephants as shapes with graceful curves that echo those of the model and her gown. He deftly used both sets of curves, combining them into one triumphant picture.
With its appearance the following month in Harper’s Bazaar, illustrating ‘Carmel Snow’s Paris Report,’ Dovima with Elephants created a new standard by which fashion photographs would be judged. In a quote that seems to apply directly to this image, Harper’s art director and Avedon’s mentor Alexey Brodovitch succinctly summed up the young photographer’s unique talents: ‘The shock-surprise in his photos is the ingredient that has always given his work freshness and excitement. He has an amazing ability to spot the unusual and exciting qualities in each woman he photographs. This, combined with his tremendous imagination, makes his work so exceptional.’