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Why Avedon is Avedon

Join Philip Gefter, author of What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon. In this talk, Gefter makes a case for Avedon as one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, discussing his mentors, his influences, how he revolutionized fashion photography and, simultaneously, how he advanced the genre of portraiture in photography with work that becomes ever more enduring with time.

Philip Gefter is the author of two biographies: What Becomes a Legend Most: The Biography of Richard Avedon (Harper) and Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe (Liveright), which received the 2014 Marfield Prize for national arts writing; and a collection of essays, Photography After Frank (Aperture). He was the Page One Picture Editor at The New York Times and wrote regularly about photography for the paper. He was the photography critic for the Daily Beast in its early years and has contributed frequently to The New Yorker: Photobooth and Aperture, the quarterly of photography. He produced the award-winning documentary, Bill Cunningham New York. He resides in New York City.