The first picture in Richard Avedon's folio is captioned 'Alan Silvey, drifter, Route 93, Chloride, Nevada'. Such photographs were taken in the Dustbowl fifty years ago. But this is art, not documentation. We have learned a lot about photography since the Thirties, and now no one believes that truth is simple - 'all photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth' is Avedon's way of putting it. On the other hand, no one really doubts that photography is art. Meanwhile, in these pictures of the anonymous and deprived, ethnography and fashion join hands.

LRB 17 April 1986 | PDF Download