Fashionable Photos: Not Quite Free!

Models, elephants, and roller skates, oh my, were the thoughts running through my head as I checked out the Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 exhibit at the International Center of Photography a few weeks ago. One the first images I saw that really caught my eye was titled "Dovima With Elephants," a striking model in a long black dress and white sash posing with several elephants (I liked it so much in fact that I bought a postcard of the same picture from the museum gift shop.) One of the other images that caught my attention at this exhibit was carefree a man and a woman (Suzy Parker and Robin Tattersall) roller skating in Paris along the Place de la Concorde, as she wore a lovely dress (by Dior) with a matching scarf, and a charming white hat. Another model wore a hat like Charlie Chaplin's iconic headgear, while another model was wearing a piece by Paco Rabanne looked like she was ready to do battle in a Greek or Roman armor-inspired outfit.

Interestingly, Richard Avedon started his career in the Merchant Marines during World War Two and after the war took pictures for Harper's Bazaar. According to the exhibit Avedon would stage imaginary street scenes that "became as complicated as street productions" with generators illuminating city blocks and police holding back the crowds.

I think the thing that struck me the most about this photo exhibit was the contrast between certain images like a man holding a poodle and leaning against the hood of a car while a woman inside wore a fur coat or a woman with a camel and pyramids in the background, or the pictures from the 60’s when Avedon posed models in couture in Cape Canaveral and in front of rockets.

Many of the pictures recalled a more glamorous era, a time of men wearing hats, cigarettes in holders, and women in feather boas that weren’t part of a costume, though some pictures were a little more risqué, like a photo of a woman climbing a ladder naked or long hair coiled around a model to look like a hat. Avedon also sent “shock waves through the fashion industry” by using African-American model Donyale Luna in a number of shoots. I felt some shock waves myself when I realized I was looking at the younger faces of Anjelica Huston, Lauren Hutton, and Gloria Vanderbilt in some of the photos.

According the exhibit Avedon was remembered as saying, “You can’t separate fashion from the world, fashion is why we live.” I’m not sure I agree, but there were some interesting creations on view at the exhibit.

I wouldn’t go if you don’t like looking at photographs and I’m not sure I’d want to pay the $12 admission price, but it was definitely worth the pay-what-you-wish admission cost on Friday nights (my friend and I each paid a $1.)

Cheap Chick Info: Reg. admission: $12, on Fridays (Just three left, exhibit ends on 9/20) are pay-what-you wish with extended hours until 8 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tues-Thurs. and Sat-Sun.
Location Info: International Center of Photography, 1133 Sixth Ave.@43rd Street
Subway: B,D,F,V to 42nd Street, 7 to Fifth Avenue