The Master Class was created by legendary photographer Richard Avedon and artistic director Marvin Israel at the Avedon Studio in New York for up and coming promising photographers. Gideon Lewin, Avedon’s studio manager at the time, documented the evolution of the class, a forum to which students brought their personal work as well as assignments given during the course. The purpose was to stimulate the participant’s senses, awareness, creativity, and personal style. It took place one night a week for about two months with various invited guests, personalities, photographers, art directors and writers. The assignments varied, from self-portraits and portraits of others to fashion stories and reportage.
Among the participating photographers were Chris Von Wangenheim, Deborah Turbeville, Alex Chatelain, Peter Hujar, and Otto Stupakoff. Invited guests included Diane Arbus, Hiro, Ruth Ansel, Bruce Davidson, Lucas Samaras, Ben Fernandez, Richard Lindner, and Elaine May.
The atmosphere was charged, with Marvin Israel playing devil’s advocate, controlling the sometimes heated, yet always constructive discussions. Richard Avedon amplified his thoughts, adding a critical element. Students were encouraged to bring in anything they found visually interesting and unique. Important photographer’s work was analyzed and discussed, while students were pressed to create their own styles of visual expression that was not an imitation or interpretation of other’s work.
Gideon Lewin created a ten-foot-square table covered in white paper around which everyone gathered and presented their work. Selected photographs were displayed on the walls for discussion. He said: “It was exciting to watch the table and the walls increasingly fill up with images while the white spaces slowly diminished. It was equally great to listen to the opinions of the guest critics, as Avedon and Marvin invited them into the fray. One of the big questions that needed to be addressed was the dilemma of how we as creative people could keep our individuality in the face of the proliferation of photography – how to preserve the difference between art and snapshots – which seems prescient in light of the popularity today of digital photography and smartphone cameras. My cameras on the ceiling and on my shoulder created a visual documentation of it all. Ben Fernandez asked at one point if the cameras had been placed on the ceiling to spy on the class. Avedon answered, ‘I don’t really know. This is Gideon’s assignment for the class’.”
This series is on view on the Throckmorton Fine Art booth at The Photography Show at AIPAD from April 4-8, 2018.
Throckmorton Fine Art
145 East 57th Street, third floor
New York, NY 10022
USA
www.throckmorton-nyc.com
