Avedon 100

Avedon 100 celebrates Richard Avedon’s enduring influence on photography and makes clear his profound impression on visual culture worldwide.

Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at Gagosian, New York, in 2023, this striking illustrated catalog celebrates the centenary of the iconic photographer’s birth. Over one hundred celebrated artists, designers, musicians, writers, curators, and figures from the world of fashion were asked to select a photograph by Avedon and elaborate on the ways in which both the image and artist have made an impact on their lives. Participants include Hilton Als, Naomi Campbell, Elton John, Spike Lee, Sally Mann, Polly Mellen, Kate Moss, Chloë Sevigny, Taryn Simon, Christy Turlington, and Jonas Wood.

Avedon 100 celebrates Avedon’s enduring influence on photography and makes clear his profound impression on visual culture worldwide. The book represents various periods from his oeuvre, including the widely known In the American West series, images of the social justice movement, classic portraiture, advertising, and fashion work. The photographs reproduced reveal the enormous and fascinating diversity of Avedon’s subjects, while the commentary offered by the celebrated selectors underscores the breadth and longevity of his legacy.

Avedon 100 includes a foreword by Larry Gagosian, texts by Derek Blasberg and Jake Skeets, and an essay by Sarah Elizabeth Lewis.

Derek Blasberg is a writer, fashion editor, and New York Times best-selling author. He joined Gagosian in 2014, and is the executive editor of Gagosian Quarterly.

Larry Gagosian opened his first gallery for modern and contemporary art in 1980 in Los Angeles. Today, Gagosian has nineteen exhibition spaces across the United States, Europe, and Asia designed by acclaimed architects. The gallery’s initiatives include innovative online viewing rooms coinciding with major art fairs, featuring transparent and comprehensive market analysis; a publishing arm that produces scholarly exhibition catalogues, artist monographs, catalogues raisonnés, and the Gagosian Quarterly magazine; as well as distinctive retail shops.

Sarah Elizabeth Lewis is associate professor of history of art and architecture and African and African American studies at Harvard University, and the founder of the Vision & Justice project.

Jake Skeets is the author of Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, winner of the National Poetry Series, Kate Tufts Discovery Award, American Book Award, and Whiting Award. He is from the Navajo Nation and teaches at the University of Oklahoma.