All photographs are accurate

Richard Avedon photographed by Irving Penn on August 23, 1993

Richard Avedon photographed by Irving Penn on August 23, 1993

“A portrait is not a likeness. The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion. There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. ”  Richard Avedon

“Though the session didn’t last longer than twenty minutes, I will forever remember the feeling of standing barefoot in that light-filled room while Avedon apologetically tilted his head toward the lens I kept ignoring, as if the camera were a socially inept friend that the two of us needed to make concessions for”. Myla Goldberg on being photographed by Richard Avedon.