WHAT BECOMES A LEGEND MOST

A welcome life of the noted photographer Richard Avedon (1923-2004), locating him in a broad cultural and artistic context.

Gefter, whose 2014 book, Wagstaff, chronicled the prominent collector, ventures a thesis that he ably defends: Until recently, photography was not considered an art form so much as “something of a utilitarian medium, whether photojournalism, advertising, passport ID photos, family snapshots, or forensic evidence.” Avedon did much to elevate photography to an art form. He began as a commercial artist, to be sure, engaged in high-end retailing and particularly fashion photography. Even late in his career, a peer likened him to the French court painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, saying, “Like many decorative artists, he despised his gift.” Regardless, over the years, Avedon developed a trademark look, his backgrounds the plain white field against which he would set such iconic figures as Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, and Henry Kissinger. Gefter sets Avedon among a hyperactive cultural milieu: As someone who started off with the intention of becoming a poet, he was well at home in the midcentury literary and cultural world of Manhattan, “at the center of a profoundly influential group of individuals—Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, Harold Brodkey, Sidney Lumet, and Mike Nichols.” He was a Jew who strived to assimilate, as did so many of his generation. He was also gay, though in the days when it was dangerous to be openly so, he took pains to disguise the fact, marrying Dorcas Marie Nowell, one of his female models. Nowell’s son later recalled, “He and my mom were deeply in love and they were deeply close. If it wasn’t sexual, though, it was a friendship kind of closeness.” Most important, though, Avedon was a brilliant if sometimes controversial artist, and Gefter does much to prove his essential role in raising photographic portraiture to a lofty level.

Revealing, fluent, and very well written—an exemplary biography of an underappreciated artist.