Curated by Avedon’s granddaughter, a new exhibition at Gagosian reframes the photographer’s seminal 1985 photo series, In the American West, for a contemporary audience
Between 1979 and 1984, the fêted US photographer Richard Avedon – at that time best known for his fashion photography and celebrity portraiture – ventured across 21 states with a small crew of assistants in a bid to capture the unknown denizens of the American West. He shot outdoors on an old-fashioned 8 x 10 inch camera, erecting a white backdrop against which to capture his subjects, who included miners, cowboys, slaughterhouse workers, waitresses, truckers, teenagers and drifters. The result became In the American West, a series of 126 large-scale prints, whittled down from more than 1,000 sittings conducted.
Titled with the subjects’ name, age and occupation, each photograph is a masterclass in emotionally wrought storytelling. “I’m looking for a new definition of a photographic portrait … ” Avedon had stated, “people who are surprising – heartbreaking – or beautiful in a terrifying way. Beauty that might scare you to death until you acknowledge it as part of yourself”. Suffice to say, he succeeded: collectively, the works represent one of the most renowned portrait series of the 20th century. Now, just over 40 years after its unveiling at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, Avedon’s granddaughter Caroline Avedon, curator and archivist at The Richard Avedon Foundation, is offering viewers the chance to reappraise the project with Facing West, a new exhibition opening at Gagosian’s Grosvenor Hill space in London.
“When I started at the foundation, I was tasked with organising the hundreds of Polaroid images taken of the subjects during the [making of the] western series,” Caroline Avedon tells AnOther of the moment that In the American West first got under her skin. “Wow, was I taken aback. The sheer volume of people, all so unique and beautiful in their own ways, sparked a very intense admiration for the project.” For this exhibition, she has chosen to showcase 21 prints from among Avedon’s final selection with the aim of shedding light on images she feels “have not yet had the chance to speak for themselves … and that might appeal to my generation [Gen Z], because each generation has to learn about the work anew.”
Her curation is both arresting and timely. Avedon’s shot of Freida Kleinsasser, a 13-year-old member of the Hutterite colony, looks like a contemporary fashion editorial, courtesy of the girl’s striking styling, combined with the timelessness of the studio-style set-up. His picture of BJ Van Fleet, meanwhile, a chubby-cheeked nine-year-old confidently toting a shotgun, feels eerily relevant – perhaps more so than when it was taken – as does the candid portrait of an unidentified migrant worker, the only subject whose name and age weren’t included by the photographer.
Avedon described these photographs as representing “a fictional West …,” declaring, “I don’t think the West of these portraits is any more conclusive than the West of John Wayne”. And yet there is an unflinching intimacy and individuality to the works – a laying bare of sorts, heightened by the lack of environmental distractions and the directness with which the subjects approach Avedon’s lens. “Each sitter’s comfort was important to Avedon,” Caroline Avedon explains, detailing how her grandfather would often stand in front of or next to his camera while shooting in order to forge a deeper bond with those he was photographing. “As people, we are often focused on how we are perceived by others. Avedon wanted to strip that away. Anyone can pose for a camera and smile, but how do we drop the mask and be ourselves in a moment of vulnerability? That was his sole focus.”
Indeed, in the age of extreme division, the deep humanity of the works is what Caroline Avedon is most keen to highlight. “My aim was to show that although we may all feel very differently about specific issues, at our core we are the same,” she says. She has deliberately situated the more “weighty” works at the start of the show, while the “lighter, more hopeful” images come later: “I hope that viewers, especially younger viewers looking at Avedon for the first time, grasp the resilience of the subjects of In the American West,” she concludes. “At the end of the day, we are all just searching for optimism and hope.”
Richard Avedon: Facing West is on show at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill in London from 15 January – 14 March 2026.
