Over a 5 year period, 1979-1984, Richard Avedon set out to photograph the working class in the American West. It was a project initiated by Mitchell Wilder, the director of Fort Worth’s Amon Carter Museum in Texas. In 1985, the portraits were shown at the museum unframed and sized anywhere between 4 feet to 11 feet high. There are images of the exhibition on the Avedon Foundation website. Visitors did not find imagery of Western socialites but instead saw images of drifters, housekeepers, miners, carneys, ranchers and migrant workers. And they were astonished, and some were angry. Apparently, numerous newspapers deemed the images cruel and cynical even though the subjects when seeing the photographs had a positive response. Eventually, the work gained praise from the establishment and is considered “a touchstone in the history of American photography” -from preface, John Rohrbach, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Amon Carter Museum.
Richard Wheatcroft, rancher. Jordon, Montana 6/19/81 and 6/27/83
Published by Abrams in 2005, you can search online for copies and they seem to run around $120. This is one of my favorite books in my collection and one that I come back to time and time again for inspiration. I think it’s a wonderful collection of images depicting real people. Honest and open. In addition, it is a beautifully printed book, thick paper and high quality binding. All things I love and appreciate.
Boyd Fortin, thirteen year old. Sweetwater, Texas 3/10/79
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