AVEDON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, SIGNED AND DATED BY HIM IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION, WITH OVER 280 PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES

AVEDON, Richard. An Autobiography. New York: Random House, (1993). Folio (11-1/2 by 14-1/2 inches), original brown cloth, photographic self-portrait mounted on rear cover, original printed acetate wrapper. $2200.

First trade edition of this impressive folio retrospective, boldly signed and dated by Avedon in the year of publication, containing over 280 full-page and double-page plates in tritone black and white, in original printed acetate.

"With the publication of An Autobiography, a massive, very personal collection of his photographs, Richard Avedon attempted to redefine and reposition his life's work… This exquisitely printed book weaves his thematic obsessions into a kind of narrative. It's meant to be read cinematically, so that each photograph is considered as part of a whole story: 'the whole,' Avedon explains, 'being my life in photography" (David Ansen, Newsweek). Autobiography reveals that "inside the celebrity portraitist and fêted fashion photographer Richard Avedon, there are two other photographers struggling to get out— the 'artist' and the political nonconformist" (Parr & Badger I:252). It is here that we find evidence of Avedon's oft-quoted belief that "All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth." Although Avedon initially achieved fame in the fashion world, "it is his portraits, stark and penetrating, which have won the greatest acclaim among collectors" (Blodgett, 102). First trade edition, published same year as signed limited edition of 250 copies. With original acetate. See Roth, 148; Parr & Badger I:252.

A fine copy.