Evidence 1944-1994

New York: Random House and Eastman Kodak, 1994. 183pp, pictorial paper boards, titles in blue on spine. Pages are clean and crisp, unmarked, with square corners. Spine is straight and binding is tight. Illustrated throughout, including numerous full-pages plates and a fold-out spread. Signed by Avedon to Katherine and dated 1994 across two-page image before title page. Dust jacket is intact, bright and clean, with titles in blue on spine and three shades of blue on front cover. Back panel is pictorial, a collage-like presentation of several photos by Avendon. Contains essays by Adam Gopnik and Jane Livingston. "With a seeming disregard for genres, photographer Avedon applies the same compositional intelligence to animated fashion shots, nightmarish images of a state mental hospital, austere portraits of politicians, artists, writers, grainy images of drifters and factory workers. This catalogue of a retrospective at Manhattan's Whitney Museum contains many pictures that will be instantly recognizable to readers of Avedon's recent An Autobiography , but it also includes a lot of new, early and unfamiliar work. Defending Avedon against critics who charge him with cold manipulation or sensationalism, New Yorker art critic Gopnik views his work as part of a theatrical tradition in photography, a carefully orchestrated interpretation of late 20th-century life. Livingston, the exhibit's curator, provides a wide-angled critique of Avedon's opus from his 1940s studies of New York City's Central Park to recent portraits of Alabama governor George Wallace, NYC black activist Rev. Al Sharpton and gays in the military." - Publisher's Weekly, 1994. Signed by Author. First Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Folio.