Focus, page 45
MICHAEL GROSS is the author of the New York Times bestsellers House of Outrageous Fortune, 740 Park, and Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women, as well as Rogues’ Gallery and Unreal Estate. A contributing editor of Departures, he created the blog Gripepad and has written for The New York Times, New York, Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, The Daily Beast/Newsweek, British Vogue, Vogue Italia, and many other publications. Learn more at www.mgross.com.
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NOTES
Introduction: Welcome to Terrytown
Peck would later write of the moment: Jamie Peck, “Terry Richardson Is Really Creepy: One Model’s Story,” March 16, 2010, http://www.thegloss.com/2010/03/16/fashion/terry-richardson-is-really-creepy-one-models-story/.
At the same event: Jenna Sauers, “Meet Terry Richardson, the World’s Most F—ked Up Fashion Photographer,” March 16, 2010, http://jezebel.com/5494634/meet-terry-richardson-the-worlds-most-fked-up-fashion-photographer.
By 1880, more than a dozen fashion journals: Seebohm, Man Who Was Vogue, 36.
Part 1: Innocence
The company was named for: Seebohm, Man Who Was Vogue, 28–33.
It was founded in 1867: Rowlands, Dash of Daring, 143–44.
Hearst’s modus operandi: Chase and Chase, Always in Vogue, 164–66.
“had a policy that a photographer”: Steichen, Life in Photography, Part 7.
“fashion photography had become a routine”: Ibid.
“The creative life of a commercial photographer”: Livingston, New York School, 295.
When she shared her impressions: Rowlands, Dash of Daring, 53–54.
“Steichen and I immediately clicked”: Snow with Aswell, World of Carmel Snow, 42.
“as inscrutable as a cup of black coffee”: Ibid., 69.
“considered a traitor”: Ibid., 75.
“dull and monotonous”: Ibid., 87.
“the first action photograph”: Ibid., 88–89.
she was introduced to a neighbor: Frissell, untitled manuscript.
“I thought, why not take pictures out of doors”: Ibid.
Its rise began with Munkácsi”: Davies, “Martin Munkácsi.”
“and I saw a fresh, new conception”: Snow with Aswell, World of Carmel Snow, 90.
“Brodovitch was to be marked forever”: Purcell, Alexey Brodovitch, 12.
Brodovitch served with the royalist White Army: Alexey Brodovitch (Philadelphia: Philadelphia College of Art).
lived in a “cheap, dirty room”: Purcell, “Ballet,” unpaginated.
“executing décor”: “Alexey Brodovitch Workshop Session Notes.”
immersed himself in the great art movements: Purcell, Alexey Brodovitch, 22–25.
Thirty-six years old when he joined: Alexey Brodovitch (Philadelphia: Philadelphia College of Art)
“spat in the face of technique”: Remington and Hodik, Nine Pioneers, 44.
“I learned from his impatience”: Alexey Brodovitch (Philadelphia: Philadelphia College of Art),
Brodovitch’s students would gather: Livingston, New York School, 293.
“You got no rules or laws”: Finke, “Pro.Files.”
“You have remarkable ability”: Alexey Brodovitch (Philadelphia: Philadelphia College of Art).
images that got “under your skin”: Tourdjman and Porter, Alexey Brodovitch.
Brodovitch “liked so few of my pictures”: Reynolds, “Focus on Alexey Brodovitch,” 80.
“The best writers, the best photographers”: Behar and Guerrin, “Avedon,” 25–27.
“It is largely due to Brodovitch”: Grundberg, Brodovitch, 23.
“I could have told him”: Ray, Self Portrait, 109.
“the stranglehold of reality”: Baldwin, Man Ray, 189.
“Louise, who has a healthy ego”: Snow with Aswell, World of Carmel Snow, 99.
Snow wanted more color: Rowlands, Dash of Daring, 207.
“She developed color photography to its ultimate”: Snow with Aswell, World of Carmel Snow, 98.
“to prove to myself”: CECOM, Women in War.
On her return to the States: Frissell, untitled manuscript.
Dahl-Wolfe objected: Rowlands, Dash of Daring, 332.
“I developed and printed all night long”: Blumenfeld, Eye to I, 251.
“I started life as a sexless sexual maniac”: Ibid., 99.
“he seemed to make no headway”: Ewing and Schinz, Blumenfeld Photographs, 83.
“Every Friday I would wait”: Blumenfeld, Eye to I, 266.
“The doors to the drawing-room of the world”: Ibid.
“I haven’t a clue about photography”: Ewing and Schinz, Blumenfeld Photographs, 89.
“I still could have fled”: Blumenfeld, Eye to I, 56.
After borrowing money to buy a suit: Ibid., 328.
“a useful method of documentation”: Kazanjian and Tomkins, Alex, 8.
“scored points”: Rowlands, Dash of Daring, 190.
Alex showed his first artistic inclinations: Kazanjian and Tomkins, Alex, 57.
Her first marriage was crumbling: du Plessix Gray, Them, 130.
Liberman was fired after a week at Vogue: Kazanjian and Tomkins, Alex, 107.
Crowinshield declared the newcomer: Ibid., 115.
He was expert: du Plessix Gray, Them, 301.
“I was cheaper, probably”: Maier, Newhouse, 54.
“more imaginative and refined”: Kazanjian and Tomkins, Alex, 137.
“Elegance was Brodovitch’s strong point”: Ibid., 143.
“one of Alex’s finest achievements”: du Plessix Gray, Them, 305.
“At eleven o’clock at night”: “Alexey Brodovitch Workshop Session Notes.”
Penn bought his first camera: Penn, Passage, 10.
“much too evolved for the job”: Ibid., 14.
“So close has their working relationship been”: Szarkowski, Irving Penn, 21.
“they just gave me the back of the hand”: Kazanjian and Tomkins, Alex, 139.
Liberman suggested another route: Szarkowski, Irving Penn, 21.
they traveled across France together: Rowlands, Dash of Daring, 308–9.
“a confused world of novices”: Snow with Aswell, World of Carmel Snow, 153.
“I was brought up on Harper’s Bazaar”: Collins, “Avedon,” 278–87.
“When I was a boy”: Avedon, “Borrowed Dogs,” 52–64.
“The family emphasis was on survival”: Michener, “Avedon Look,” 58.
“a manic autograph hound”: Ibid.
“I was a family gag”: Richard Avedon, directed by Whitney.
“I’m such a Jew”: Ibid.
“The longings of my almost adolescence”: Livingston, New York School, 337.
“We all photographed Louise”: Michener, “Avedon Look.”
“grew up with not just a sense”: Hodenfield, “Richard Avedon,” 20.
“a mire of muddy paths”: Beebe, “This Is Sheepshead Bay.”
“I must have taken pictures”: Livingston, New York School, 337.
“His wiry body”: Bosworth, Diane Arbus, 221.
“I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t cope”: Michener, “Avedon Look.”
He then reportedly hired: Sargeant, “Woman Entering,” 49–84.
“The management decided to hang them”: Avedon, “My First Sale,” 6.
Avedon “tried to weasel out of it”: Livingston, “Art of Richard Avedon,” 12.
“A slim, dark, eager young man”: Snow with Aswell, World of Carmel Snow, 155.
“neurotic completely”: “Alexey Brodovitch Workshop Session Notes.”
“If you can bring that tension to fashion”: Michener, “Avedon Look.”
“I tried to do what I thought Harper’s Bazaar wanted”: “Alexey Brodovitch Workshop Session Notes.”
“So I took my own models”: Ephron, “Big Name Photographers: Richard Avedon.”
a six-page spread resulted: Squiers and Aletti, Avedon Fashion.
“technically very bad”: Sargeant, “Woman Entering.”
“The humanity came from Carmel Snow”: Richard Avedon, directed by Whitney.
Bazaar “paid less than anybody”: Rowlands, Dash of Daring, 345.
“She was damaged by her beauty”: Collins, “Avedon.”
“The conspiracy between her beauty, her illness and her death”: Livingston, “Art of Richard Avedon,” 101.
“When I began to photograph”: Richard Avedon, directed by Whitney.
“And then I simply felt I couldn’t publish”: Livingston, New York School, 339.
“After that first ‘secret’ trip”: Bussard, Unfamiliar Streets, 37.
“There was no sleeping”: Richard Avedon, directed by Whitney.
“arsedirectors”: Man Who Shot Beautiful Women, directed by Watson.
“I do photograph what I was afraid of”: Richard Avedon, directed by Whitney.
“Everything that happened to Suzy”: Jacobs, “Everyone Fell for Suzy.”
make them “look like real women”: Battelle, “‘Scarecrows’ Sell Clothes.”
“Also, I have to control what I shoot”: Sargeant, “Woman Entering.”
“Maybe the Marquis”: Avedon and Thurman, Made in France.
“He may be assigning to the Marais courtyard”: Bussard, Unfamiliar Streets, 196.
She didn’t like McKay: Buchwald, “The Horse-Faced Girl.”
Reginald Kernan, a sportswriter: Buchwald, “Real Doctor’s Dilemma,” 5B.
“Our rapport was built from sitting to sitting”: Avedon and Thurman, Made in France.
“When you were working with Dick”: Michener, “Avedon Look.”
they started rocking a car: Richard Avedon, directed by Whitney.
Avedon would later compare himself: Avedon and Thurman, Made in France.
“offering to work hard and cheaply”: Steinbicker, Assisting Avedon.
“He had no compunctions”: Ibid.
Snow became “more and more peremptory”: Snow with Aswell, World of Carmel Snow, 203.
“I was established by then”: Rowlands, Dash of Daring, 471–75.
His marriage was loveless: Ibid.
It “established a new standard”: Livingston, New York School, 267–69.
both of them were impelled to: Ibid., 270–71.
he and Brodovitch concocted a spy camera: Ibid., 297–98.
“The waves that went out from Harper’s Bazaar”: Livingston, “Art of Richard Avedon.”
Vreeland was “a brilliant fashion editor”: Dwight, Diana Vreeland.
“a very good typographer”: “Alexey Brodovitch Workshop Session Notes.”
“The new art director”: Dahl-Wolfe, Photographer’s Scrapbook, 145.
A transcript of those sessions: Except where otherwise noted, the source of all quotations in this section is “Alexey Brodovitch Workshop Session Notes.”
“I was much more sour”: Miller, “Striking Addiction to Reality,” 346.
“those silly LV emblems”: Steinbicker, Assisting Avedon.
“The march on the war”: Hodenfield, “Richard Avedon,” 20.
“its white background”: Livingston, New York School, 269.
Both were “very insecure”: Bosworth, Diane Arbus, 222.
Part 2: Experience
“Her beautiful body shone”: Stern, Adventures, 15.
“How’s this for thirty-six?”: Bert Stern, directed by Laumeister.
“for the sake of an image”: Stern, Adventures, 16.
his name would be “lost to history”: Ibid., 8.
“My life was nothing”: Bert Stern, directed by Laumeister.
“Superman was my only reality”: Stern, Adventures, 9.
a commercial photographer nudged him: Ibid.
its “pseudo art director”: Bert Stern, directed by Laumeister.
“I think Penn was right”: Ephron, “Big Name Photographers: Bert Stern.”
“very dangerous . . . too beautiful”: Bert Stern, directed by Laumeister.
“I couldn’t depend on him”: Kent, Once a Dancer, 109–10.
Their first night of marriage: Ibid., 118–24.
“stodgy and pedestrian”: Kazanjian and Tomkins, Alex, 143.
“Alex was careful”: Ibid., 204.
He joined Pat Patcévitch: Ibid., 219.
“Alex instantly jumped into the lap”: du Plessix Gray, Them, 309.
art director Miki Denhof walked him through: Felsenthal, Citizen Newhouse, 161.
The McCann Erickson agency hired them: Halebian, “Bert Stern Story,” 28–53.
Shooting Sophia Loren: Ibid.
“I’m trying to get at the way women are”: Ephron, “Big Name Photographers: Bert Stern.”
From Allegra Kent’s perspective: Kent, Once a Dancer, 135.
Stern asked her to pose for a lingerie ad: Lisanti, Pamela Tiffin.
Bert visited Allegra in California: Kent, Once a Dancer, 150–53.
“There were certain unmistakable signs”: Ibid., 183.
“Shit, this is the game”: Duffy, Duffy, 21.
Lady Rendlesham was unlike: Ibid., 23.
“had a slightly effeminate approach”: Ibid., 18.
“People like myself”: Ibid., 17.
in “pre-swinging London”: Ibid., 14–15.
“We’ve all got different versions”: Ibid., 18.
“In a flash, I decided to end it”: Duffy, directed by Brusasco.
“Bailey and I shagged ourselves”: Gross, Model, 170.
“We were just workers”: Duffy, directed by Brusasco.
“after a night of drinking”: Dwight, Diana Vreeland, 153.
“It was as though we were two brothers”: Livingston, Art of Richard Avedon, 35.
Israel was an avid promoter: Bosworth, Diane Arbus, 199.
he was not only protected but pampered: Squiers and Aletti, Avedon Fashion, 177.
“He was a major influence”: Henry Wolf, Hopeless but Not Serious (privately printed, n.d.).
a growing friendship with Arbus: Bosworth, Diane Arbus, 223.
the countess’s mother had objected: Wilson, “It Happened Last Night,” 6C.
The easily shocked Nancy White: Squiers and Aletti, Avedon Fashion, 178.
“Dick Avedon often felt like tearing out his hair”: Bosworth, Diane Arbus, 213.
“Henry Wolf allowed me to be personal”: Gross, Model, 231.
“a typical Vreeland pose”: Avedon, Evidence, 145.
Shooting over the Pont Alexandre III: Stopin, “Sky over Paris.”
“I would start dancing in the air”: Ibid.
“the new Avedon”: Friedman, “Imposing Proportions,” 70–73.
He even asked to work with Deborah Turbeville: Eisner and Alonso, “Trouble with Bob,” 68.
“to celebrate the cynicism, narcissism and boredom”: Livingston, “Art of Richard Avedon,” 50.
“Everyone read something different into the pictures”: “Alexey Brodovitch Workshop Session Notes.”
the Stones came to America: Warhol and Hackett, POPism, 81.
Tom Wolfe covered the affair: Wolfe, “Girl of the Year.”
“the greatest fashion photographer in the world”: Shrimpton, Autobiography, 97–99.
A magazine writer was there: Friedman, “Imposing Proportions.”
“You can’t fuck and photograph”: Haden-Guest, “Richard Avedon,” 46, 49.
“All photographers have their quirks”: Shrimpton, Autobiography, 132.
In 1960, Stern claimed: Stern, Adventures, 17.
he met with Alex Liberman: Richard Avedon, directed by Whitney.
She found dealing with Avedon’s ego: Mirabella, In and Out of Vogue, 121–22.
she dashed off a note to Dick: Vreeland, Memos, 124.
she criticized a cover photo: Ibid., 130.
Avedon had, in fact, seen the writing on the wall: du Plessix Gray, Them, 240–42.
a young society girl named Penelope Tree: Davis, Party of the Century, 227.
“Somehow,” Kent wrote later: Kent, Once a Dancer, 184–86.
The Leipzig-born Freymann: Rensberger, “Two Doctors Here Known,” 48.
He’d leave Allegra at 7:00 a.m.: Kent, Once a Dancer, 197–99.
“Dian Parkinson didn’t exist”: Cornfield, Photo Illustration, 37–38.
On a visit to the studio: Ibid., 15.
“There’s never enough money”: Aronson, “Stern,” 10.
Savvy customers, Stern among them: Rensberger, “Two Doctors Here Known.”
“Bert was headed toward a point of no return”: Kent, Once a Dancer, 216–17.
Then, he unexpectedly invited Allegra: Ibid., 219–20.
“Bloody well tell Mr. Stern”: Cornfeld, Photo Illustration, 21.
Vreeland made one of her rare visits: Ibid., 14–15.
Allegra Kent speculates: Kent, Once a Dancer, 226.
he fled while being taken to the dentist: Ibid., 232–33.
Bert had fired a starter pistol: Ibid., 235.
he got tossed out of his house: Ibid., 236.
“ ‘She ruined my life’ ”: Ibid., 246–47.
And Allegra Kent showed up: Klemesrud, “Evening Hours,” B8.
