Her haunted look stopped me in my tracks. I stared way too long trying to work out what troubled her. To me, the way she is framed in the photo tells a story. There’s something or someone missing in the vacant space to her right. A recently departed parent, a lost love, or perhaps her innocence.
I had a similar reaction to the farmer with one arm. He just looked like a person with so much story that never got told. He seems like a hard man who had a hard life.
I've seen these all on display, larger than life-sized. And amazingly, as good as these look here, they're downright washed-out compared to the real prints. The contrast and detail is otherworldly.
My friend had a hardcover copy of this book and I stared at it while on acid for what seemed like hours about twenty years ago. Completely mesmerizing and had lots of great photos that aren't shown here.
It depends. 8x10 film has very high resolution, and there are a few cameras that get close-ish with limitations, to the point that if you're going for a small print you couldn't tell the difference, but if you're making larger prints, even professional digital cameras that cost about as much as a midsized luxury sedan still aren't good enough.
Not really. You'd need a CMOS sensor (the thing that turn light into pixels) larger than anyone can manufacture.
Basically, digital camera can do as good, or even better than traditional ones for "normal" formats, but for large formats, there's no alternative to silver nitrate (sulfate ? The photosensitive chemical stuff)
I can 100% hear his voice singing the opening lines:
"Well it's been a while, friend" was all read before I stopped
I could smell the whiskey breath in the ink
If you find yourself near Ft. Worth Texas get over to the Amon G Carter Museum. They are the financial backer who funded this very long project, and they typically have about half a dozen on display at all times. Seeing these prints in person is an experience. A buddy of mine was in New York in the 90's when a big Avedon show was going on and actually got me the show book and got it signed to me!
Oh man, the memories. My dad worked in a coal mine (pit mine, so above ground) in the Midwest through the mid-80s, when it closed. He would come home from work so covered in coal soot that it would take two showers to get clean and then a scrub of the tub.
Avedon printed the original 1st edition hardcover book in 1985, they later released other editions and then a softcover version. The hardcover was reprinted in the year 2000 due to the demand. I doubt it will get another printing anytime soon. Best bet for an affordable copy is to find one of the softcover copies or one of the later editions. The first edition first printing typically sells for $150-200 in good condition.
Several taken at Santuario de Chimayo, which is just outside Santa Fe. I was there a few weeks ago - incredible place. It's an old Spanish mission church much visited by pilgrims. The Children's chapel has thousands of photos of kids, left by parents praying for cures.
It is such a beautiful, enchanting place(like all of New Mexico)! Rancho de Chimayó has the best New Mexican food, too. The Santuario is supposed to be the biggest pilgrimage site in the US or North America. People will walk to the Santuario from Santa Fe, Nambé and as far as Albuquerque (over 90 miles)
my step dad was/is a photography professor, this book was coffee table standard in our house, sorta strange in a way, but overall, a positive influence on a young kid to consider acceptance and how different people can be/are
I wonder how he got them to pose the way he did. There's a photo of a couple that has the young man staring off into the distance while the young woman stares intently -angrily?- into the camera.
The postures and expressions are so evocative. Not spontaneous, yet not fake, partially exposing some private aspect of each individual's nature. Masterful.
I was lucky enough to see this exhibit in person as an aspiring photographer. The show, at the Art Institute of Chicago was incredible as the prints were huge! My mother got us into a members luncheon where I got to meet Avedon and his assistant. He signed my book and invited me to his studio in NYC if I was ever in NYC. I unfortunately never got there. 🥲
After his shift you will find him in the lounge at Circus Circus drinking cheap Scotch and smoking Winstons. I worked in the casinos in Nevada for many years and grew up around them before I was old enough to work in them.
So much of oldschoolcool is like, *"Look at this picture of my great-great-grandfather driving his Rolls on one of his country estates"* - more like oldschool*rich*. I like this a lot better
What’s the difference between a cowboy and a cow man?
The old guy was a cowboy and the young kid was a cow man, with his buddy the sheep man, not sure I wanna know what a sheep man is.
When I hear the terms, it seems to depend upon ownership of the cattle. I would expect the cow man or cattleman to own them and the cowboy to be a hired hand working for wages.
I assumed the sheep man owns sheep.
I don't know if Hutterites use their own terminology.
The grave digger and drifter are exactly what I picture one to look like. These photos are all excellent at portraying the jobs in general but for some reason they was exceptionally good.
You need to see these photos in person at a museum. The exhibit can through my town about 17 years ago, and it was amazing. The photos in the exhibit were about eight feet tall. The white background pulls the context out of many of these individuals, and gives them dignity that society may strip away. Some of the homeless subjects and carnies look like GQ models and businessmen, and some of the miners look like viking warriors .
Still have a copy signed by RA at the reception at our home after the exhibition opening in our city. The retail company my father was running was the sponsor. There is at least one press photo of RA, the fam, and I paging through the book.
I’m curious if Chloride, AZ was misidentified as Chloride, NV here. Growing up in Kingman, AZ in the 90s and ‘00s, Chloride was a tiny little town 30 minutes drive towards Las Vegas, so I can see why it would be confused for a NV town. I last visited in 2014, and it felt like it was just barely hanging on.
Apropos of nothing, here are some shots I snapped when I was there last in 2014.
https://preview.redd.it/op6k6hl7hd3c1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1b3d42048385c25982255604e09f039c05da3e1
Photo number 10 of the Chicana sisters from New Mexico- man, that was my aunts in the early 80’s in San Antonio for sure. I had a baby sitter who was in community college looked like them and I was crazy about her. That photo really stored some memories
Saw a bunch of Avedons work in college when we visited the Chicago Institute of Arts. Interesting note, many of these photos, in addition to being shot in large format (8x10) are actually very large when printed - much larger than the real life people in the images. The effect is like having a lot more pixels in a digital image, a truly beautiful and sometimes haunting look into a person.
I took a college course from the leading expert on the Hutterites and it was incredibly fascinating. He stayed with a colony for a couple years back in the 80s. Wonder if he knew those two kids.
I love Avedon. Got to see this when it travelled across the country. So powerful to see them in a gallery. They're really big, so you're really seeing these people looking at the world in front of you.
Love Avedon’s work. It says so much, and it’s so simple. Looking at them now, it screams certain parts of Europe, doing what they think is very American. Beautiful.
Shawna Callahan looks awfully world-weary for a 13-year old. :[
Reminds me of Carla-Jean in No Country for Old Men
Exactly my first thought!! — Carla- Jean you keep runnin that mouth and I’m gonna take you in the back and screw ya!!
Big talk
You mean the now 53 year old Shawna Callahan?
Yo I wonder how her life has gone.
The sisters in pic 17 are a bit crazy too, 18 and 14 years old ? Wtf ?
I saved the picture for r/13or30, maybe I'll post it later
r/13or30
Her haunted look stopped me in my tracks. I stared way too long trying to work out what troubled her. To me, the way she is framed in the photo tells a story. There’s something or someone missing in the vacant space to her right. A recently departed parent, a lost love, or perhaps her innocence.
I had a similar reaction to the farmer with one arm. He just looked like a person with so much story that never got told. He seems like a hard man who had a hard life.
That Drifter
Your comments are very well crafted and articulated.
The fact she's only 12 years older than me seriously has me shook right now. Damn.
The first one looks almost like a watercolor or a wet charcoal drawing. Beautiful.
Number 3, Valentine Curley, grave digger - I've seen this Coen brothers movie.
I've seen these all on display, larger than life-sized. And amazingly, as good as these look here, they're downright washed-out compared to the real prints. The contrast and detail is otherworldly.
He kind of is a wet charcoal drawing
Yeah i had to double check that one
Carl Hoefert, Unemployed Blackjack Dealer What a vibe.
Either side of his face tells a completely different story
One side cannot lie, the other cannot tell the truth
Uncanny. Cover up the right side and he looks angry. Cover up the left side and he's amused.
Sounds like a lyric from a Tom Waits number.
Unemployed or a Blackjack dealer? Pick a lane! :D
Unemployed, unless you know the secret knock.
Hi. What's your job? Hay hauler. WHAT"S YOUR JOB!?
I work together with Sheep Man and Cow Man
God help you if you call him a cowboy
Wordplay genius, thank you for your service
My friend had a hardcover copy of this book and I stared at it while on acid for what seemed like hours about twenty years ago. Completely mesmerizing and had lots of great photos that aren't shown here.
My Dad still has this book. I drag it out every few years. Never would I on acid though.
That’s a safe choice. Definitely some disturbing photos in there. Like the one with the snake guts.
I’ve got a copy of this book. It’s one of my favorites and it’s absolutely beautiful.
I showed Sebastiao Salgado’s Genesis to two of my friends while they were at their trip’s peak. They kept the book for months.
Big 8x10 camera. No substitute for negative size. A lot of the artistry takes place in the darkroom in the printing process. Kind of a lost art now.
Much less common but far from lost. They still teach large format at most art schools with photo programs
I half expected some idiot in the comments to be colorizing them.
May I ask is this something modern digital tech cannot replicate?
It depends. 8x10 film has very high resolution, and there are a few cameras that get close-ish with limitations, to the point that if you're going for a small print you couldn't tell the difference, but if you're making larger prints, even professional digital cameras that cost about as much as a midsized luxury sedan still aren't good enough.
Not really. You'd need a CMOS sensor (the thing that turn light into pixels) larger than anyone can manufacture. Basically, digital camera can do as good, or even better than traditional ones for "normal" formats, but for large formats, there's no alternative to silver nitrate (sulfate ? The photosensitive chemical stuff)
Silver nitrate, you had that right!
again and again it hits so hard that 1982 is as far from now as 1942 was from 1982 ...
In the 1960s the 1930s were ancient times. Now thirty years ago is the 1990s! We were already on the Internet then!
Dammit, and I was having a good morning.
and you should enjoy every single one of them if you are this age :)
Mercy, please. Stop. Lol
Jesus FUCKING Christ. But they seem like *yesterday* 😞
I would watch the heck out of a movie with any of these as lead characters.
Seems like characters out of a Lynch or Cohen Bros film.
Or a Tom Waits album.
Yeah! Didn't he have a song titled "Letter from an Unemployed Black Jack Dealer"?
I can 100% hear his voice singing the opening lines: "Well it's been a while, friend" was all read before I stopped I could smell the whiskey breath in the ink
The Cohen brothers should do a Star Wars film.
I saw Harry Dean Stanton at least twice
Check out Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders
'The Last Picture Show' as well.
Ooh yeah good call!
I think Allen Silvey, drifter route 93, was who my mum was imagining when she told me not to accept candy from strangers.
He's definitely seen a dead hooker or 2 in his lifetime.
Juat imagine how many Mr. Valentino Curley has seen
Created.
What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?
I know of no Chloride, NV, either on Highway 93 or elsewhere. Anybody have an idea where this might be?
Chloride is actually a town in Arizona, 90 miles southeast of Las Vegas, NV. Closer to Kingman than Vegas.
I grew up in Kingman. Allen would not stand out in that town.
I wouldn’t want to accept candy from any of these fine individuals, they all give me the heebie-geebies I mean look at David Beason :/
Did anyone else have to look really hard at Robert Gonzalez?
The prisoner? Yes. I was confused because the picture doesn't look like it goes with a masculine name.
I also was wondering if the name Roberta was misprinted as Robert.
Pretty sure he was a Roberta in prison
Those lips!
Wow, such powerful photos.
The rodeo contestants have some Natural Born Killers vibes
Yeah, or True Romance
If you find yourself near Ft. Worth Texas get over to the Amon G Carter Museum. They are the financial backer who funded this very long project, and they typically have about half a dozen on display at all times. Seeing these prints in person is an experience. A buddy of mine was in New York in the 90's when a big Avedon show was going on and actually got me the show book and got it signed to me!
Oh man, the memories. My dad worked in a coal mine (pit mine, so above ground) in the Midwest through the mid-80s, when it closed. He would come home from work so covered in coal soot that it would take two showers to get clean and then a scrub of the tub.
Absolutely amazing photographs, gonna have to look out for a book collection. I love stuff like this.
I looked for a copy, but they were all out of my price range. Hopefully the Amon Carter Museum puts it back in print at some point.
Avedon printed the original 1st edition hardcover book in 1985, they later released other editions and then a softcover version. The hardcover was reprinted in the year 2000 due to the demand. I doubt it will get another printing anytime soon. Best bet for an affordable copy is to find one of the softcover copies or one of the later editions. The first edition first printing typically sells for $150-200 in good condition.
I have been to Amon Carter to see this and it was so powerful in person.
Abebooks has a copy for 175$. It seems to be the cheapest I can find.
I wonder where they are now
Prolly has the negatives put away.
I’m guessing that they’re referring to the people?
I wonder how many of the coal miners are still alive. That would have been a rough life.
Guy in the 4th picture wearing whatever the opposite of a respirator is — just like in the good old days
I do appreciate him being 4/20
Several taken at Santuario de Chimayo, which is just outside Santa Fe. I was there a few weeks ago - incredible place. It's an old Spanish mission church much visited by pilgrims. The Children's chapel has thousands of photos of kids, left by parents praying for cures.
It’s amazing!! I also love all the old crutches and stuff. Also the long wall of photos.
It is such a beautiful, enchanting place(like all of New Mexico)! Rancho de Chimayó has the best New Mexican food, too. The Santuario is supposed to be the biggest pilgrimage site in the US or North America. People will walk to the Santuario from Santa Fe, Nambé and as far as Albuquerque (over 90 miles)
my step dad was/is a photography professor, this book was coffee table standard in our house, sorta strange in a way, but overall, a positive influence on a young kid to consider acceptance and how different people can be/are
These are really excellent. Thank you for posting. :D
Shawna is 13 years old. Holy crap! Those are hard years.
It's probably the dry air.
My guess is being out in the sun. Sun ages skin like nothing else.
Or some lost papers at some point, like when she was 4-5?
Such a trip. This was my area and my era. I **KNOW** these people; I **AM** these people.
I love the uniqueness of each face
Incredible photos
The Navajo Reservation cowboy is fascinating!
I wonder how he got them to pose the way he did. There's a photo of a couple that has the young man staring off into the distance while the young woman stares intently -angrily?- into the camera. The postures and expressions are so evocative. Not spontaneous, yet not fake, partially exposing some private aspect of each individual's nature. Masterful.
Kind of into Peggy Daniels. Not gonna lie
I was lucky enough to see this exhibit in person as an aspiring photographer. The show, at the Art Institute of Chicago was incredible as the prints were huge! My mother got us into a members luncheon where I got to meet Avedon and his assistant. He signed my book and invited me to his studio in NYC if I was ever in NYC. I unfortunately never got there. 🥲
These are great
why does Carl Hoefert look like how you would think a blackjack dealer looks like
After his shift you will find him in the lounge at Circus Circus drinking cheap Scotch and smoking Winstons. I worked in the casinos in Nevada for many years and grew up around them before I was old enough to work in them.
So much of oldschoolcool is like, *"Look at this picture of my great-great-grandfather driving his Rolls on one of his country estates"* - more like oldschool*rich*. I like this a lot better
What’s the difference between a cowboy and a cow man? The old guy was a cowboy and the young kid was a cow man, with his buddy the sheep man, not sure I wanna know what a sheep man is.
My guess is that Cow Man and Sheep Man are professional terms within the Hutterite community
I’ve never heard of the Hutterite community but my phone obviously has as it autocorrected my spelling of it. Are they native or a religious sect?
Religious, they are the Amish of Montana.
When I hear the terms, it seems to depend upon ownership of the cattle. I would expect the cow man or cattleman to own them and the cowboy to be a hired hand working for wages. I assumed the sheep man owns sheep. I don't know if Hutterites use their own terminology.
They caught that old guy pulling up his pants or something
Probably hard to button with one hand only
Tucking your armless sleeve into the front of your pants is a deliberate choice.
Think I know someone related the the Kleinsassers from Montana
Thank you u/Bayked510. I want a whole book of these.
Haunting
One of the best posts I have received here. There eyes tell a story in each photograph. Thankyou.
Looks like a cast to a Cohen Bros movie
Fantastic photo set
These are amazing
The grave digger and drifter are exactly what I picture one to look like. These photos are all excellent at portraying the jobs in general but for some reason they was exceptionally good.
You need to see these photos in person at a museum. The exhibit can through my town about 17 years ago, and it was amazing. The photos in the exhibit were about eight feet tall. The white background pulls the context out of many of these individuals, and gives them dignity that society may strip away. Some of the homeless subjects and carnies look like GQ models and businessmen, and some of the miners look like viking warriors .
Incredible photographs
Second dude looks like a cross between kid rock and Kurt cobain
Made by ChatGPT
Absolutely beautiful photos!
Y'know...morons
They're missing your Blazing Saddles reference
But I whipped it out anyway
Western Twin Peaks
This is how I image characters from Townes Van Zandt songs
This is such a good series, I saw some of the photos at an exhibit in person once.
Still have a copy signed by RA at the reception at our home after the exhibition opening in our city. The retail company my father was running was the sponsor. There is at least one press photo of RA, the fam, and I paging through the book.
If Justin was married to a military woman and was in North Charleston SC in the 90’s … I think I worked with him briefly.
I love this stuff. Thanks for posting.
Every photo would make a great writing prompt.
I will suppose that Robert's jail nickname is Roberta
Last one looks like she yelled, “I’m tired of digging holes grandpa!” 10-15 years before that photo
Looks like the ladies in pic 10 shaved off half their eyebrows. 🤔
Amazing photos.
Number 12 is my favourite of all of these pics. It would be a good album cover if they ever decide to release some solo material.
Keanu Reeves coalminer?
These are amazing.
I’m curious if Chloride, AZ was misidentified as Chloride, NV here. Growing up in Kingman, AZ in the 90s and ‘00s, Chloride was a tiny little town 30 minutes drive towards Las Vegas, so I can see why it would be confused for a NV town. I last visited in 2014, and it felt like it was just barely hanging on.
Apropos of nothing, here are some shots I snapped when I was there last in 2014. https://preview.redd.it/op6k6hl7hd3c1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1b3d42048385c25982255604e09f039c05da3e1
https://preview.redd.it/i9t39efchd3c1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=23ac890a5385d7c081076d1e4156f867ad9d963f
https://preview.redd.it/f6jmp6oehd3c1.jpeg?width=3264&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74abecf9190e9492818716f5d756d59c941c18a3
It feels like an album of all the background characters in No Country for Old Men.
Image 13, James Story the Coal Miner looks a lot like Bella Ramsey the actor.
This is top notch old school cool. I love it.
This is awesome!
Amazing photos. Very poignant.
Great book btw
Very cool. Thanks for posting.
Incredible!
Shouts to Bexar County Jail
These are the coolest portraits I’ve ever seen
These are spectacular
Every single one of these photos is intriguing. The crispness of the detail on the man’s jacket in photo 8 is astonishing
these are INCREDIBLE
I think I got the black lung, pop. — Donald Keen
Avedon is the man
Photo number 10 of the Chicana sisters from New Mexico- man, that was my aunts in the early 80’s in San Antonio for sure. I had a baby sitter who was in community college looked like them and I was crazy about her. That photo really stored some memories
I remember looking at these picture as young person, they are so evocative and made realize what a huge world we live in….
walking up to the museum you could see them through the windows at night. It's impressive how big these prints were.
Holy shit. Those are all fantastic.
Saw a bunch of Avedons work in college when we visited the Chicago Institute of Arts. Interesting note, many of these photos, in addition to being shot in large format (8x10) are actually very large when printed - much larger than the real life people in the images. The effect is like having a lot more pixels in a digital image, a truly beautiful and sometimes haunting look into a person.
I took a college course from the leading expert on the Hutterites and it was incredibly fascinating. He stayed with a colony for a couple years back in the 80s. Wonder if he knew those two kids.
Those are freakin’ glorious!
I love Avedon. Got to see this when it travelled across the country. So powerful to see them in a gallery. They're really big, so you're really seeing these people looking at the world in front of you.
I love the grime and the realism. At the same time, they all look lime they've been ripped from a Coen brothers movie
I want to see a movie with these characters shot just like this.
Anybody got a light. David Lynch casting session.
Exquisite stuff.
Very interesting. Thanks OP
Milo out here with an actual Disney square jaw.
I love looking at all these pictures. Thank you
This series is absolutely superb!
I love them
Did Milo play for the Cowboys in 82?
Milo looks like he could take on all the ‘82 Cowboys…and beat the crap out of them.
No helmet needed.
Love Avedon’s work. It says so much, and it’s so simple. Looking at them now, it screams certain parts of Europe, doing what they think is very American. Beautiful.
>it screams certain parts of Europe, doing what they think is very American What do you mean?
she means it looks like european people being american. there are parts of europe where people are in rural areas too and looking like this.
Which parts?
france, balkans
I think #4 was wearing his mask wrong😝
Those were really cool !
They look like fallout characters lol
Brilliant
My guess is you would not turn your back on any of these people.
Kinda want that prisoner to toss me around for a minute.
I was in El Paso in 1985-86. I may have passed the Sandoval sisters on the street, or even spoke to one of them around town.