The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family
Photo 1 - Photo 2 - Photo 3 - Photo 4 - Photo 5
Photo 6 - Photo 7 - Photo 8 - Photo 9 - Photo 10
A
uthor: Richard Avedon & Shannon Thomas PerichFormat:
HardcoverISBN:
0061138169ISBN13:
9780061138164
Trim:
10 x 11 1/2
Pages:
Illustrations:
Release Date:
Drop Ship Month: August
Price: $29.95 / $37.95 Can.
Territory: W
SYNOPSIS
This book presents for the first time, Richard Avedon’s unpublished photographs of the John F. Kennedys, taken prior to Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration.
Printed in four-color black and white on heavy matte art stock, this book presents for the first time, over 100 gorgeous pictures of the John F. Kennedys shot by Richard Avedon on the eve of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. Of these images, more than 75 have never been published in any form.
In the early 1960s, Richard Avedon was commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar to create a series of ten photo essays. His first essay, “Avedon: Observations on the 34th First Family” (The typo belongs to Harper’s Bazaar, as Kennedy was the 35th president) appeared in the February 1961 issue. The column included six direct, calm, poised, self-assured, black-and-white portraits of John F. Kennedy and his family-all taken on the eve of the inauguration. That same day, Avedon shot color portraits of all four Kennedys sitting in the sun by the sea in Palm Beach. One of these images became the cover of the February 28 issue of LOOK magazine, and 11 more color and black-and-white photographs by Avedon appeared inside. Just before the magazine hit the newsstands and was delivered to over six and half million people, a set of 21 photographs, comprised mostly of the LOOK photographs, were released by the White House and appeared in newspapers across the country on February 13 and 14, 1961.
In addition to the Harper’s Bazaar, LOOK, and public relations photographs issued by the White House, this book features a selection of more than 75 outstanding images from the Harper’s Bazaar photo session that have never been seen before. Avedon donated more than 200 images of the session to the Smithsonian, and out of respect for the photographer, the Smithsonian waited until after his death to publish the best of this material. Photography curator Shannon Perich, who is on staff at the National American Museum of History, has culled an incredible array of images from that donation for this book, which tells the story of the photographs shot on January 3,1961, the story of a legendary first family-and critically examines the work of a legendary photographer.
AUTHOR PROFILE
Shannon Thomas Perich is the Associate Curator of Photography, Photographic History, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. She has been in the photographic history collection for almost 10 years collecting, cataloging and researching the history of photography from photography’s earliest images,daguerreotypes to its most recent, digital. Perich has been involved with numerous prestigious exhibits at the museum and has leant her photographic expertise to various radio and television segments. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Foreword Author Bio:
Robert Dallek is the author of An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, which was a number one New York Times bestseller. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Society of American Historians, which he served as president in 2004-2005.