Richard Avedon, America's preeminent portraitist and fashion photographer, photographed the many faces of politics throughout his career. Portraits of Power brings together Avedon's political portraits for the first time. Juxtaposing images of elite government, media and labor officials with counter-cultural activists, writers and artists, as well as ordinary citizens caught up in national debates, it offers a five-decade taxonomy of politics and power by one of America's best-known artists. The book features several of Avedon's extended projects addressing these themes, including coverage of the civil rights debate in the early 1960s (published in 1964 in Nothing Personal); the American anti-war movement and the war in Vietnam from 1969-1971; portraits of the American power elite in 1976, produced for his groundbreaking Rolling Stone portfolio "The Family;" "Exiles: The Kennedy Court at the End of the American Century," a retrospective homage to the Camelot generation published in the New Yorker in 1993; and his final photo-essay, "Democracy," surveying the national mood during the politically fractious period prior to the 2004 presidential elections (published posthumously in the New Yorker in 2004).
Richard Avedon (1923-2004) was the most successful fashion photographer and portraitist in America throughout a six-decade career. Serving in the Merchant Marines during World War II, Avedon was assigned to the photography unit and learned his trade making identification portraits. After the war, he found work as a photographer for Harper's Bazaar and Theater Arts and began a fruitful apprenticeship with legendary editor, designer and artist Alexey Brodovitch. Avedon invigorated the staid fashion photography of the time, staging fictional tableaux and developing an unprecedented theatrical style. Moving to Vogue in 1966 and the New Yorker in 1993, Avedon continued to innovate. Extraordinarily prolific throughout his career, he produced many books, among them Nothing Personal (1964), An Autobiography (1993) and The Sixties (1999).

Customer Rating:
Summary: L. Cornish doesn't know Avedon, This is a GREAT book
Comment: I was shocked when I read the 1-star review, the style the reviewer dislikes is Avedon's signature style, and is what makes the images interesting - Why buy the book than if you don't like that style? The whole concept behind his work is the white-background, so that the viewer is forced to focus on the subject. Avedon has never been about capturing the "moment", but rather about capturing the essence of a person though an up-close portrait.

All of the images are incredibly well reproduced, and having seen them firsthand at the Corcoran Gallery of Art I can attest to the reproduction quality. Avedon does a remarkable job capturing some of the most influential people in the last 50 years, and does so in a way that is truly elegant. The majority of the prints were done using a 8x10 large format camera, and thus the pictures capture an incredible amount of detail.

I highly recommend this book for any serious collector, and especially those who are big Avedon fans.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not what I was expecting
Comment: While I understand that the author is a renowed photographer, I was dissapointed with the photos displayed in the book: they are comprised of black and white, full frontal, camera facing shots--none even slightly amusing to me. It's my personal preference to view photos that capture a moment in time, or display uncharacteristic poses of the subjects. Neither exists in this book. Perhaps seeing the display in larger than life size may improve the impact of the photos.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: richard avedon portraits of power
Comment: this is a wonderful book to all of us who lived through the Nixon years. everyone who comes into our homes is facinated by this book, which is all pictures.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Powerful book.
Comment: Beautifully well crafted book. I am a fan of Richard Avedon, and through this book you can view most of his greatest portraits. I recommend the book if you want to have a piece of great photography in your hands.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book of Avedon's work...but there are better
Comment: I recently got into photographer Richard Avedon's work last spring and saw that this book was to be released in October so I waited very eagerly. When I got the book I was a little let down after having looked at "Photographs 46-04" because the "wow" factor isn't there in every photo as it is in "Photographs" due to there being alot of politicians portraits. Still a great collection of images but I would recommend the book "Performance" over this one and would say that "Photographs 1946-2004" is the best collection of his work.

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