Richard Avedon - Photographs London Thursday, November 21, 2024 | Phillips
  • “I am always stimulated by people. Almost never by ideas.”
    —Richard Avedon

    Richard Avedon’s 1992 photograph of Stephanie Seymour boldly lifting her Comme des Garçons dress has been widely published, first appearing in Egoïste (1992) and then in his retrospective monograph An Autobiography (1993). Seymour recalls the shoot, which took place during Avedon’s photography masterclass:

     

    ‘I did my first Vogue cover with [Avedon] when I was 18. But I really got to know him when I did a class for him. He was teaching a class about the fashion end of photography, and he had asked Christy Turlington to be his model for it, but she couldn’t do it. So then he asked Linda [Evangelista] … I was his third choice. But I was like, “Yes! Yes!” And that’s where that picture of me lifting up my dress comes from. There were actually 12 or 15 students watching as we took that picture.’

     

    Presented in timeless monochrome against a minimalist backdrop, Seymour gazes directly at the camera, exuding confidence. Avedon’s eye for commanding sensuality and conveying the essence of his subjects, as exemplified here, challenged the conventions of fashion and editorial photography.

    • Provenance

      Staley-Wise Gallery, New York, 2011

    • Literature

      Avedon, An Autobiography, pl. 181
      Avedon, Woman in the Mirror, p. 159
      Abrams, Avedon Fashion: 1944-2000, p. 349
      Whitney Museum of American Art, Richard Avedon: Evidence 1944-1994, p. 167
      Wisniak, 'Stephanie Seymour', Egoïste, no. 12, vol. 2, 1992, p. 131

    • Artist Biography

      Richard Avedon

      American • 1923 - 2004

      From the inception of Richard Avedon's career, first at Harper's Bazaar and later at Vogue, Avedon challenged the norms for editorial photography. His fashion work gained recognition for its seemingly effortless and bursting energy, while his portraits were celebrated for their succinct eloquence. "I am always stimulated by people," Avedon has said, "almost never by ideas." 

      Indeed, as seen in his portraits — whether of famed movie stars or everyday people — the challenge for Avedon was conveying the essence of his subjects. His iconic images were usually taken on an 8 x 10 inch camera in his studio with a plain white background and strobe lighting, creating his signature minimalist style. Avedon viewed the making and production of photographs as a performance similar to literature and drama, creating portraits that are simultaneously intensely clear, yet deeply mysterious.

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PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

35

Stephanie Seymour, model, New York City, May 9

1992
Gelatin silver print.
57.5 x 46 cm (22 5/8 x 18 1/8 in.)
Signed in stylus in the margin; signed, dated, numbered 7/25 in pencil, title, date and copyright credit reproduction limitation stamps on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£30,000 - 50,000 

Sold for £69,850

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Photographs

London Auction 21 November 2024