An unflinching exploration of aging from one of the twentieth century's most influential
photographers '[Avedon's] portraits ... expose something more than skin deep whole worlds are
contained in these well-earned crags and crevices.' - The New York Times 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.
