Thread by @dean_frey

Celebrate the Richard Avedon Centennial 🎂💯
📷 Irving Penn, Vogue, August 23, 1993
"He was small, dark & electric with his own sort of vitality. Crackling. Sparks seem to fly out of him. He flashes his fingers like tiny rapid moths."
- Ginette Spanier

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Carson McCullers & Tennessee Williams, April 25, 1950
#Avedon100

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Buster Keaton, 1952
#Avedon100

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
John Ford, Bel Air, California
April 11, 1972
@MuseumModernArt
#Avedon100

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Two shots of Stephen Sondheim, from July 10, 1961 & April 6, 2004
#Avedon100

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Aretha Franklin, 1968
#Avedon100

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
W. H. Auden in St. Mark's Place in Manhattan, 1960.
#Avedon100
Read about this photo in Geoff Dyer's essay "On Avedon":
threepennyreview.com/samples/dyer_f…

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Gloria Vanderbilt, 1953
"Avedon was so important to me in my life. Not only as a friend, but what he gave me, what he did for me. I was kind of trying to get it all together, and he was one of the people to help me do it."

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Elton John & Kristen McMenamy for Gianni Versace, 1997
#Avedon100

James Stevenson
@NewYorker, November 1, 1976
"Edgar just had his picture taken by Richard Avedon."

Richard Avedon's portrait of Dexter Gordon graces the cover of his 1981 album "Gotham City"

#Avedon100

...and the back cover photo is even more impressive!
Dexter Gordon by Richard Avedon, 1981
#Avedon100

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
W. Somerset Maugham, 1975.
Avedon wrote Truman Capote: "The smile from the corner of Maugham's mouth down puts anything on Jackie Kennedy's face out of business."
#Avedon100

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Jacqueline Kennedy in her inaugural gown, designed by Oleg Cassini, 1961
#Avedon100

On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
His cover photo for "Mike Nichols & Elaine May Examine Doctors", 1962
#Avedon100

Richard Avedon
Suzy Parker and Robin Tattersall, coat by Dior, Place de la Concorde, Paris, August 1, 1956

Richard Avedon
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, headed by Julian Bond, Atlanta, March 23, 1963
#Avedon100

Richard Avedon
Interstate 95 #1, Newark, New Jersey, May 18, 1963
#Avedon100

Richard Avedon
Evelyn Avedon, Petit St. Vincent, French West Indies, December 20, 1969
#Avedon100

Richard Avedon
New York Life #13 ☕️
Harlem, New York, September 6, 1949
#Avedon100

Richard Avedon
Twiggy, hair by Ara Gallant, Paris, January 6, 1968
#Avedon100

Richard Avedon
Carmen (Homage to Munkacsi)
Coat by Cardin, Place Francois-Premier, Paris, August, 1957
#Avedon100

Here's the original that Avedon was paying homage to:
Martin Munkácsi
Jumping a Puddle, 1934

Richard Avedon
Italy #2, Trastevere, Rome, July 24, 1946
#Avedon100

Richard Avedon
Suzy Parker and Robin Tattersall, evening dress by Gres, Moulin Rouge, Paris, August 1957
#Avedon100

Richard Avedon
Jasper Johns, New York, April 29, 1976
#Avedon100
Avedon (1923, New York) & Johns (1930, Augusta, Georgia) share a birthday on May 15 🎂🎂

This is my favourite Richard Avedon fashion photo:
Suzy Parker, in an evening dress by Lanvin-Castillo, plays pinball ("flipper" en français) at the Café des Beaux Arts, August, 1956
#Avedon100