An unflinching exploration of aging from one of the twentieth century's most influential
photographers For more than half a century Richard Avedon sought to represent advancing age in
the faces of the people he photographed. From his earliest years at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue
through to the twenty-first century Avedon routinely and audaciously broke the rule of
flattering public personalities in his portraits. Instead he chose to highlight the onslaught
of what he called the "avalanche of age " dramatizing the universal experience of getting
older. Accompanying a groundbreaking exhibition at The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan
University and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Immortal is the first book to delve into
Avedon's unflinching representation of aging throughout his career. This elegant hardcover
volume features nearly 100 portraits of cultural luminaries each printed in striking tritone
such as Michelangelo Antonioni Truman Capote Marcel Duchamp Duke Ellington Toni Morrison
Patti Smith and Stephen Sondheim as well as one of Avedon's last self-portraits. Texts by a
star-studded cohort of authors including Vince Aletti Adam Gopnik Paul Roth and Gaëlle
Morel shed new light on an under-represented element of Avedon's practice. Thoughtfully edited
and beautifully produced Immortal testifies emphatically to the determination with which
people confront the relentless advance of mortality.
