The Photograph: Richard Avedon

Peter Orlovsky and Allen Ginsberg, poets, New York, December 30, 1963

"I wanted to combine a portrait wit a story that I wanted to tell" - Richard Avedon

"Your photo is straight that's why it's good" - Allen Ginsberg to Richard Avedon

Researching Richard Avedon's photography for my upcoming university essay, I came across this picture, taken in 1963. I instantly liked it for its simplicity and directness, and for the ease which with the close relationship between the famous beat poet Allen Ginsberg and his life partner Peter Orlovsky is being portrayed - and for the fantastic facial hair, obviously.
Ginsberg became a kind of a "pin up" for the intellectual part of the 1970s gay movement after the picture had been published on the cover of the 8/1970 issue of Evergreen Review. Avedon himself once stated that "a portrait isn't a fact, only an opinion", hence adding a second, political dimension to his pictures. He found inspiration in the changing times, and enjoyed challenging conventions by taking up provocative subject matters. He had the power to do so - by 1960 Avedon was already a wealthy, established lifestyle and fashion photographer, counted among the world's ten greatest photographers by Popular Photography. His sense for great, straightforward portraiture was infallible. This and his experience certainly enabled him to carry a political message in his pictures so subtly, so beautifully, and yet so confidently.  I can't remember Richard Avedon ever being named as one of the idols of the gay movement - it may be because of his modesty which definitely resounds in his portraits - but I think he should be.

This is the first installment of  'The Photograph', a series of pictures that I love, find remarkable or important, and which I will present on this blog on a non-regular basis.