iPalazzo delle Esposizioni · Monti
Richard Avedon. In the American West. 1979-1984
Avedon's portrait series of workers, drifters and townspeople of the American West, commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum in 1979. Curated by Clément Chéroux of the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson.
More in Rome
Ronald Fischer, a beekeeper from Davis, California, faces the camera with a swarm of bees covering his face and body. It is one of the few staged pictures in the series. He held still for it, which is more than anyone in Rome manages with one tiger mosquito.
Between 1979 and 1984 Avedon spent his summers at truck stops, rodeos, mining camps and slaughterhouses, photographing miners, drifters and waitresses against a white backdrop hung outdoors in the shade. All 110 prints he made for the 1985 book are here, a first for Italy, so you walk past 110 strangers who all look straight at you. Polaroids, notes and letters from sitters show how it was made.
Avvenire called the portraits "potenti e dolenti", powerful and mournful. The show fills rooms 9 to 12. Until 1 November you enter from the staircase at via Milano 9a and pay €12; from 3 November the ticket is €15 and adds a second show.
Look for
Ronald Fischer, beekeeper
Look for the man from Davis, California, whose face and body are covered by a swarm of bees, one of the few staged portraits in the series.
The letter from Richard Garber's mother
Avedon fed Garber, a homeless man he photographed, and helped him reach a shelter; after her son died, his mother wrote asking if Avedon had more pictures of him.
The working Polaroids
These show the streets, walls and cars around each sitting, everything the white backdrop cut out of the final portraits.
Test prints with darkroom notes
Avedon's proofs carry his written instructions for the printer, the step between the shoot and the book.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
Skip if
You want the landscapes of the West: every sitter is cut out against the same white backdrop.
With kids
Under-6s go free and ages 7 to 18 pay €7. Primary school groups can book the "Storie dietro l'obiettivo" session, Tuesday to Friday.
Also at Palazzo delle Esposizioni
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
8
- Richard Avedon. In the American West. 1979-1984Courtesy of Palazzo delle Esposizioni
- Hank Willis Thomas & Man Ray: Tomorrow I shall contradict myselfPhoto: Giorgio Benni
- L'archivio racconta. Memorie di famiglia nei documenti della persecuzione antiebraicaCourtesy of Museo di Roma (Palazzo Braschi)
- Isaac Julien: All That Changes You. MetamorphosisCourtesy of Galleria Borghese
- Palazzo delle EsposizioniSzilas, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Palazzo Barberini - Gallerie Nazionali di Arte AnticaPubblicUsername / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Galleria ColonnaLalupa, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Galleria Continua Romarandreu, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0