The Most Perfect Shoe in Paris

Last week, after anticipation for quite some time, I finally found a spare afternoon to venture over to 6th and 43rd Street where the Avedon Fashion exhibition is taking place at the International Center of Photography. This year, the ICP celebrates a Year of Fashion, and naturally, they've chosen master of photography, Richard Avedon, to be the highlight of that year. Running 'til September 20, 2009, Avedon Fashion showcases 175 of the photographer's works over the span of his entire career in which he clocked time at Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker.

Taking a stroll through the gallery of his photographs is to immerse oneself in his world--a world of beauty, elegance, grace, and form. It becomes clear very quickly why his work revolutionized the fashion industry and why it still sits on its own tier within fashion photography today. What I love most about Avedon's photographs is that many of them mimic real life--albeit a very glamorous one. Instead of models dressed up in the studio perfecting their pose, Avedon took the ladies out to a bar, to the circus, or out on the streets of Paris to capture what real life looks like in motion. His frames are filled not only with the hired beauties, but with a cast of characters you'd find milling around if you were there yourself. In one of Avedon's earlier works in 1947, he photographs model Renée in an exquisite Dior ensemble of "The New Look" era. The model is turned away from the camera, her skirt in full circular motion as she strolls down a stone street. And in the background are three suited gentleman, one of which looks up towards the lens as if caught in the moment unawares, wondering what all the fuss is about. Whether Avedon placed him there or not, his presence makes the scene suddenly come alive. It is moments such as this that you so rarely find in fashion editorials today.

But even given one model and a studio, Avedon had a way of churning out the most beautiful images imaginable. One of my favorite studio shots by Avedon is the photograph of Veruschka in motion (pictured above). Even on the tip of her toes, with her back arched away from the camera, not an ounce of discomfort emits from her body. She looks graceful, light as a feather, as if she might lift off the ground and fly away at any moment.

For anyone who is in the New York City area, I would urge you to put aside a couple hours to visit this incredible showcase of Avedon's career. It is a photo exhibit and a lesson in fashion history in one, but it is also much more. It is an up close look at human expressions of beauty through a span of the last 60 or so years of American culture. And there really is no man better than Avedon to take us through that journey.

Photo Credits top to bottom: Shoe by Perugia and Eiffel Tower shot by Avedon in 1948, Brigitte Bardot photographed in 1959, Robin Tattersall and Suzy Parker in a dress by Dior photographed in 1956, Suzy Parker and Robin Tattersall running with the birds in 1956, Veruschka in a dress by Bill Blass photographed by Avedon in 1967.