Paisley Petunia

Upon arriving fresh off the red-eye in Detroit last month (for Cole + Erin’s wedding!), Aaron + I took a quick power nap, had a great meal at a local lunch counter, Eph’s, on recommendation from our hosts. The #2 on rye with a side of coleslaw.

Seeing as it was in the 50s, which felt like freezing to this California girl, we sought out for an (indoor) adventure. The groom-to-be suggested the Detroit Institute of Arts:

Boy, were we in for a treat. We happened in on the first day of the Avedon Fashion Photographs 1944-2000 exhibit!

We made our way straight to see Avedon:

Avedon photographed the great beauty and Detroit native Donyale Luna (photo just to the left of me). She was the first black high fashion model to appear in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Shout out to Detroit!

DIA had the neatest thing – a cell phone guided tour. Instead of renting a bulky earphone set, you simply use your own cell phone to dial the # under the corresponding photograph. It was a really cool way to experience the art.  I hope more museums do this.

I have to say Aaron + I spent time looking at each photograph in detail; we were mesmerized. I especially liked his early works on the streets of Paris with Dovima. He was so brilliant in how he told stories through his muses – you can see how he has inspired most editorials you see in magazines today.

Here are a few of my favorites, it was really hard to narrow down:

paris

dovima with elephants

audrey hepburn (center) in milan

dovima with sacha

twiggy + richard avedon

veruschka von lehndorff

veruschka von lehndorff

china machado - the western world's first non-caucasian cover girl

sunny harnett

elizabeth taylor

Another neat thing about this exhibit was the display of the actual prints that Avedon and his editors marked up in pencil with the specific instructions on how each photo is to be cropped and where it will be placed on the magazine page. A peak into the inner workings of publishing fashion magazines…

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Bay Area readers, you can see view the Richard Avedon Photographs 1946-2004 exhibit at SFMOMA until November 29th.

You can read more about Avedon in the NY Times: “How Avedon Blurred His Own Image”