Creative Minds

Andy Warhol
So, I learned about Andy Warhol, and thought he was an interesting artist. Everyone knows him as the "Campbell soup guy". I was never really interested in his art or saw it as anything remarkable, until I learned a little more about him. Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Andrij and Julia Warhola- who were emagrents from  Miko now called Mikova. Today it is located in Northeastern Slovakia. When Warhol was young he developed a disease that causes involuntary movements of the extremities, which could have led to his scarlet fever and also caused his skin pigmentation. He then became a hypochondriac, having a fear of hospitals and doctors. He was bed-ridden most of his childhood. He bonded with his mother, since he was confined to his bed. Warhol would listen to the radio and collect pictures of movie stars around his bed. Those pictures he collected are scene in his work today. That means he really started his work at a young age, and did not even know about it yet.  When Warhol was older, he started painting. One can see how he was getting his style with his painting, because one of his paintings was of lips... repeated all throughout the canvas. How he got into the commerical art, Warhol, was confused and drew a blank on what he should draw. His friend, ( an art museum coordinator at the time) asked him, "what is your likes or dislikes?" Warhol stated that he always hated Campbell soup, because his mother would always make it, or ask him to pick it up from the store. So then he drew Campbell soup cans. He made many and all of them sold. Warhol was a print maker. His purpose for his art was to have it made copies and not be important. However, Warhol was wrong. His large print of himself was sold for over 100 million dollars. Crazy huh? I know that this is not a good source, but I really liked how they told the story. In Wikipedia it stated
 "On June 3, 1968, Valerie Solanas shot Warhol and art critic and curator Mario Amaya at Warhol's studio.[20] Before the shooting, Solanas had been a marginal figure in the Factory scene. She authored the S.C.U.M. Manifesto,[21] a separatist feminist attack on males. Solanas appears in the 1968 Warhol film I, a Man. Earlier on the day of the attack, Solanas had been turned away from the Factory after asking for the return of a script she had given to Warhol. The script, apparently, had been misplaced.[22]
Amaya received only minor injuries and was released from the hospital later the same day. Warhol however, was seriously wounded by the attack and barely survived (surgeons opened his chest and massaged his heart to help stimulate its movement again). He suffered physical effects for the rest of his life. The shooting had a profound effect on Warhol's life and art.[23][24]
Solanas was arrested the day after the assault. By way of explanation, she said that Warhol "had too much control over my life." She was eventually sentenced to three years under the control of the Department of Corrections. After the shooting, the Factory scene became much more tightly controlled, and for many the "Factory 60s" ended.[24] The shooting was mostly overshadowed in the media due to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy two days later.
Warhol had this to say about the attack: "Before I was shot, I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there – I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life. People sometimes say that the way things happen in movies is unreal, but actually it's the way things happen in life that's unreal. The movies make emotions look so strong and real, whereas when things really do happen to you, it's like watching television – you don't feel anything. Right when I was being shot and ever since, I knew that I was watching television. The channels switch, but it's all television." "
I thought that was a great way to say this story. To understand Warhol's personality a little bit better... here is a Youtube link that is really funny- 
I love how this is supposed to be just kind of a whatever, thing with this man. Simple answers, simple way of life. Here is another really funny clip. Warhol states his feelings on the famous artist Jasper Johns
 Really funny. 
Warhol died in the 80's- He was 58 years old when he died. So that is the research I did on Warhol. 





Richard Avedon



This month I have done a lot of research on Richard Avedon-

Richard Avedon once said,
“When I was a boy, my family took great care with our snapshots. We really planned them. We made compositions. We dressed up. We posed in front of expensive cars, homes that weren’t ours.  We borrowed dogs. Almost every family picture taken of us when I was young had a different borrowed dog in it…It seemed a necessary fiction that the Avedons owned dogs. There we were in front of canopies and Packards with borrowed dogs, and always, forever smiling. All of the photographs in our family album were built on some kind of lie about who we were and revealed a truth about who we wanted to be.”  (Sonnenberg 52-53) 
As a young child, Richard Avedon was always curious about lies and truths correlating with people and events in the world, especially in photographs.  Avedon surmised that most photographs tell some sort of lie. It was his belief that in photographs people might smile even if they are not happy. In other photos, the subject or person can be distorted in order to make it more pleasing to the human eye. For these reasons and others, Avedon was convinced that photographs do not depict 100% truth. Richard Lacoyo, from Time Magazine stated, “(Avedon) knew that every portrait was a performance but that the performance could be a passage to something true.” 
Avedon learned basic photography after he dropped out of high school and enlisted in the merchant marine. (Horyn 3) Avedon studied under many fashion photographers and soon became a well-know fashion photographer. Even when Avedon was a well- known fashion photographer, he always thought about the truth of the picture, and how (at that time) his photographs portrayed lies. The photographs would make a model look thinner than she really was. A photograph would capture a lady in expensive clothing that she really did not wear. Avedon always wanted to change the outlook of photography and capture more truth then what was being portrayed. 
When Avedon, became better known, he started to take his own photographs of subjects and events around the world. He mainly focused on portraitures. He wanted to capture something more than an average posed cliché picture. Avedon was interested in capturing the truth- either in his subject’s characteristics, or in the events in the world. Morally, telling the truth is the right thing to do: however, Avedon’s quest of finding truth and documenting it in his photographs; disturbed the public so much that they felt his pictures exploited the subjects/ people he was presenting. However, the public failed to notice that Avedon never exploited his subjects in reality because one: the people knew they were having their picture taken, two: Avedon cared about his subjects and capturing the mood/feeling that subject portrayed at that time, and three: he was interested in showing the true story of events in his photographs, that seemed unwanted by the crowds. (Avedon)
  • People Knew
Avedon took pictures of many people, famous and not famous. However, all of Avedon’s subjects knew that they were being photographed. Often people would ask Avedon to take pictures of them, whereas sometimes Avedon would ask certain people to be the subject of his photographs. The bottom line was that Avedon would not exploit anyone purposefully who was not willing to have their picture taken. Two famous examples of people who wanted their picture taken were Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin. (Avedon)
Marilyn Monroe came to Richard Avedon wanting her picture to be taken. They schedule a time for the two to meet in Avedon’s studio.  In the Film, Richard Avedon: in Darkness and Light, Avedon states,
“There is no such person as Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was an invention of hers. A genius invention that she created like an author creates a character. So when Marilyn Monroe put on a sequence dress and danced in the studio- I mean, for hours she danced, and sang, and flirted, and did this thing. There is no describing what she did. She did Marilyn Monroe. And then there was the inevitable drop because she was someone who went very high up and went way, way down. And when that night was over she sat in the corner like a child with everything gone. But I wouldn’t photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying, ‘no’.” After Avedon took this last photo of Marilyn Monroe, it became very popular to the public crowd. It captured the hardship and depression that Monroe had in her life.  
David Halberstarm, a journalist talked about this particular photo and stated,
“She (Monroe) was a woman who all the men wanted to help catch as she was falling. I think that was a key to her success and you can see it in photo’s like this, the sadness the erosion in the face that is behind the glamour which is on the screen.” (Avedon)
It is evident that Monroe allowed Avedon to take this picture of her. The photo shows someone who is not flirting or smiling but rather sad and forlorn unlike her regular persona.  
Another example of someone allowing Avedon to take their picture is Charlie Chaplin. For years, Avedon wanted to take Chaplin’s picture, but never got the chance. One day Avedon got a call on the phone. The person on the line said, “Hello, This is Charlie Chaplin.” Avedon replied, “This is President Roosevelt,” then he hung up. Charlie Chaplin then called again and said, “This is Charlie Chaplin and I want you to take a picture of me.” Soon after the phone call Chaplin came over for a photo shoot.  Towards the end of the shoot, Chaplin requested to Avedon if could do his own stance and have a picture of it. Avedon waited with his eyes looking in the viewfinder of his camera. Chaplin went out of camera view and popped up with two fingers on his brow similar to devil horns while laughing.   Avedon knew that was the perfect photo by the characteristic charisma in Chaplin’s face. Avedon mentioned that the lighting was perfect and could not capture a better pose for Charlie Chaplin. The following day, Avedon found out that due to McCarthyism  Chaplin was wanted by the American Government because they claimed he was pro-Communist.  After leaving Avedon’s apartment, Chaplin escaped on a boat to England.  Avedon always thought Chaplin’s last picture was a statement to America saying, “Look what a devil I am.” (Avedon) Time Magazine Wrote, 
“His (Avedon’s) shot of Charlie Chaplin making devil's-horns at the camera is an object lesson in economical wit. Accusations of communist sympathies were pushing Chaplin away from America; Avedon gives us the funnyman trying on his new role, the bogeyman.” (20) So the two stories about Marilyn Monroe and
Charlie Chaplin shows that Avedon did not victimize his subjects but took pictures with his subjects consent; and through the stories about Chaplin and Monroe, Avedon showed great care for his subjects and themes in his photographs.


  • Cared about the subjects and the mood
Avedon wanted his subjects to be relaxed as possible when he photographed them so that he could catch the mood of the person to provide a more powerful piece of work.  In the article, “How Avedon Blurred His Own Image”, it states, “Avedon made it a practice to ask his subjects what music and food they preferred. This more than contributed to the relaxed atmosphere of the studio.” Avedon did not just photograph famous people and models; he also photographed the normal public. Cathy Horyn states, “Avedon was amused at how people could look at the empty face of a model and find it more beautiful than the worn face of a coal miner.” This statement shows that Avedon cared for all of his subjects not just the famous or wealthy. He cared for the subjects deeply, and cared for the mood in his art just as deep or even more so. An example about caring for mood in photographs was when Avedon produced the series of photographs of his dying father.  
In the late 1960’s, Avedon’s father, Jacob Avedon, was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Avedon decided to take pictures of the process to Jacob’s death. In the pictures you can see the different stages of death and the feeling his father was portraying at the time. The last picture in the series is his father dead.  Many critics thought that this series was wicked. They felt Avedon victimized his own father by taking pictures of his stages of death. They thought the pictures were disturbing and cruel.  Critics thought that Avedon did not respect death or his father. Avedon’s response to everyone was “My work is meant to disturb, in a positive way…my work is not so much about the individual in the photograph, but rather the mood I want to capture in that individual.”  Someone asked Avedon why he photographed his father; his response was that he did it out of respect. Jacob Avedon and Richard Avedon did not get a long a lot of the time and he wanted to get to know his father a little bit better, by trying to understand and capture  what his father was going through  (Avedon) In the book American West, Max Kozloff stated about Avedon’s father, 
“Avedon did nothing so crass as to intimidate his subjects since it was much simpler and more effective to put forth his indifference to the portrait contract itself. While depicting people, his portraits carry on as if they were describing objects of more or less interesting condition and surface. Through this deflates his subjects, such as radical procedure is just as evidently not hostile… Nothing personal anticipates the route Avedon was to follow, and is already aptly named. In his Portraits, he gets very close to its subjects in terms of physical space…and makes the viewer become emotionally attached” (50)
Another example of Avedon’s work that captures mood is the piece called Beekeeper. Avedon dreamt about a man covered in Bees. He sketched it out and decided he wanted to try to photograph what was in his mind at the time. 
Avedon advertised in beekeeping journals to find a subject who was willing to pose in this manner. He then settled on Ronald Fischer as his model. Avedon had Fischer travel to Davis, California and they spent two days shooting the portrait. Unlike Avedon’s normal comfortable atmosphere for his subjects, Avedon ordered thousands of Bees to put on Ronald’s chest, making it uncomfortable for the subject. Ronald stated, “I still remember hearing the Bees underneath the trees.” To keep the Bee’s on Ronald, they put fluid from the Queen Bee on his body where they wanted the Bee’s to land. Ronald Fischer had anywhere from 500-800 bees on his chest. Ronald Fischer stated,
“I remember Richard Avedon telling me ‘Now remember you can’t move because any movement would be a blur’... I could not say anything because if I opened my mouth Bees would fly in…I could feel them in my ears and it sounded like a jet engine…I got stung several times…”
  This statement shows the uncomfortable conditions that this man had to go through. Avedon made mention of how he captured his torture in the photographs, “You feel his suffering from the stings of Bees in his expression. And he resembles a Lazarus coming back from the dead covered with worms.” Avedon also mentioned how one could see in Ronald’s eyes the pain and discomfort he was in. He thinks highly of Ronald for going through that, and helping portray the image in his mind. It is obvious that Avedon cared about his subjects and moods in his photographs. (Avedon) 
Avedon was very interested in “true emotions.” The statement “true emotions” to Avedon is the mood that is portrayed in his photographs. He never cared for fake posed pictures. An example, of what Avedon called “true emotions” was his photograph he took of The Duke and Duchess of Windsor.  In the Film, Richard Avedon: In Darkness or Light, Avedon recounts the story about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He remembered seeing them in a casino, acting lavishly and improper. Avedon mentioned how he came up to the couple and asked if he could take their photographs in his room. They agreed to have a photo shoot with Avedon. While Avedon was taking their pictures he said that he was disappointed because the couple kept giving him royal poses. Avedon said they were a completely different couple, when he was taking pictures of them. Avedon noticed that the couple was deeply passionate about dogs. He said that he took many pictures of the couple and their pet dog. Tired of the lack of “true emotion” Avedon mentioned a story about a dog he saw get ran over by a car, while crossing the street. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were deeply horrified and sad. Their eyes were filling up with tears for this dog that got ran over. Avedon, than got the picture he wanted. He got the “true emotions”.   Avedon captured what most photographers have not captured and that is true feelings (happy or sad)/ mood in his pictures. 
  • Unwanted Truth’s
Just as much as Avedon obsessed about mood in his photographs, he was also interested in capturing the true story about situations or people in the world. Sometimes these situations he caught on camera were unwanted by the public. One example of Avedon’s work that captured unwanted truths were his photo seris of the Louisiana insane asylum .
Avedon took many disturbing photographs during his lifetime-civil rights demonstrators, white racists, and former slaves to name the few: however, the most disturbing series of photographs was the pictures he took of the inside of an insane asylum. (J. Avedon 4) Avedon stayed three days at the Louisiana mental institution, taking pictures of the patients that reside there. Avedon mentioned in an interview with Helen Whitney that he was concerned at the living conditions at the mental institution and wanted to document it for the world to see. Avedon mentioned that he was not interested in the outlook of the picture, but more concerned about showing the conditions of the mental institutions. (R. Avedon) Avedon put these pictures in his book, Nothing Personal, hoping to show the American public the conditions some mental institutions have. Although the title of the book say’s “nothing personal” -it contradicts Avedon’s true feelings. Those pictures of the mental institution were very personal to Avedon.   One of the reason’s Avedon was interested in Mental institutions were because he had a sister, Louise Avedon, whom he adored, get institutionalized because she had a mental illness. In the article Richard Avedon Telegraph News it stated, 
“Louise Avedon was a precocious beauty, but as a young adult she started to suffer from severe mental illness; she died aged 42 in a mental institution. Avedon was haunted by her death and by her beauty. In an interview published in 1985 in the magazine Egoiste, he said ‘Louise’s beauty was the event of our family and the destruction of her life.’ She was a very beautiful woman.” Many think that his fascination with mental institutions had to deal with the loss of his sister. (Horyn 25) 
To conclude, Avedon always believed in trying to photograph the truth in his pictures. The best way to describe the truth is using the words from Avedon’s obituary from The Sunday Times








“In reality he believed passionately that portraits were pointless unless they had a story to tell, at least a truth to communicate. “Faces,” he once said, “are the ledgers of our experiences.” While Avedon’s portraits often clashed with a naïve American optimism and preoccupation with celebrity his genius was to make his subjects whether Henry Kissinger or a hobo from New Mexico-Perform themselves, to show something essential about themselves. For Avedon, who always worked not behind, but to one side of the camera, the relationship between photographer and photographed was of the exchange and dialogue. ‘If each photograph steals a bit of the soul,” he asked “isn’t it possible that I give up pieces of mine every time I take a picture?’” 
So it is evident that Avedon did not exploit his subjects, but rather he showed the truth of their personality and or situation.  All of Avedon’s subjects knew they were having their picture taken and never complained about him exploiting them. The public felt uncomfortable because some of the pictures show subjects that people don’t like to think about, and persona’s that the public did not like to see at that time. However, that is what makes Avedon a great American Artist. Avedon pushed the emotions of the viewers, to think about events that was accruing around them, that they would have not noticed otherwise.