Avedon portraits of Perry Smith?

rutt

Any photographer who has seen Capote will have been struck by the scene of Richard Avedon taking pictures of Perry Smith, Truman Capote, and Richard Hickock. The pictures in the movie are recreations, so the actors will be recognizable in the shots.

I really want to see the Avedon originals. I googled but found nothing. I have some Avedon books: Portraits, Autobiography, and Observations (co-authored with Truman Capote in 1959.) I dug through and could only find one of these pictures, one of Hickock, some of Capote, but none of Smith.

Does anyone know, are these published somewhere? Do I have to go to a museum to see them? Which museum?

(I suspect they may have been published in Life, but I don't even know how to begin finding that.)

AnneSu

hey rutt -
i just googled for the same photos of perry smith taken by avedon. i am very much interested in his work as i am just writing about avedons portraits for uni.
finally i got some result: search in google for "avedon perry smith center of creative photography".
you ll find out that there must be a photo in tucson - university of arizona.
maybe there even exists a catalogue published by this center.

hope you ll find out more.
bye, anne

rutt wrote:

Any photographer who has seen Capote will have been struck by the scene of Richard Avedon taking pictures of Perry Smith, Truman Capote, and Richard Hickock. The pictures in the movie are recreations, so the actors will be recognizable in the shots.

I really want to see the Avedon originals. I googled but found nothing. I have some Avedon books: Portraits, Autobiography, and Observations (co-authored with Truman Capote in 1959.) I dug through and could only find one of these pictures, one of Hickock, some of Capote, but none of Smith.

Does anyone know, are these published somewhere? Do I have to go to a museum to see them? Which museum?

(I suspect they may have been published in Life, but I don't even know how to begin finding that.)

librarianjen

rutt wrote:

Any photographer who has seen Capote will have been struck by the scene of Richard Avedon taking pictures of Perry Smith, Truman Capote, and Richard Hickock. The pictures in the movie are recreations, so the actors will be recognizable in the shots.

I really want to see the Avedon originals. I googled but found nothing. I have some Avedon books: Portraits, Autobiography, and Observations (co-authored with Truman Capote in 1959.) I dug through and could only find one of these pictures, one of Hickock, some of Capote, but none of Smith.

Does anyone know, are these published somewhere? Do I have to go to a museum to see them? Which museum?

(I suspect they may have been published in Life, but I don't even know how to begin finding that.)

How about contacting your local librarian?

Some of the original Avendon photos of Perry and Hickcock were published in the Jan. 7, 1966 Life article "Horror Spawns a Masterpiece," beginning on page 58. It's an extensive article, with several photos. Your library should have access to it.

DoctorIt

Nice work, Jen! Way to show 'em how it's done!

Lee Massey

Nice work Jen...

Here is a picture of the actual magazine and the details:

http://pages.tias.com/10697/PictPage/1922621983.html

Thanks,

Lee

librarianjen wrote:

Some of the original Avendon photos of Perry and Hickcock were published in the Jan. 7, 1966 Life article "Horror Spawns a Masterpiece," beginning on page 58. It's an extensive article, with several photos. Your library should have access to it.

Angelo

rutt wrote:

Any photographer who has seen Capote will have been struck by the scene of Richard Avedon taking pictures of Perry Smith, Truman Capote, and Richard Hickock. The pictures in the movie are recreations, so the actors will be recognizable in the shots.

I really want to see the Avedon originals. I googled but found nothing. I have some Avedon books: Portraits, Autobiography, and Observations (co-authored with Truman Capote in 1959.) I dug through and could only find one of these pictures, one of Hickock, some of Capote, but none of Smith.

Does anyone know, are these published somewhere? Do I have to go to a museum to see them? Which museum?

(I suspect they may have been published in Life, but I don't even know how to begin finding that.)

try emailing: info@avedonfoundation.org

pathfinder

Wow!! That was quick. A library - folks still use those?? Imagine that:D:D

Actually, I was impressed with the speed and variety of all the answers.



So, John, was the movie worth seeeing?? Or just depressing??

Stories of families captured and destroyed by psycopathic amateur criminals are not fun to see. There was a simliar case locally here a few years ago.

I wonder if you aren't depressed by the whole experience of it all.

rutt

Thanks, Jen. Thanks, Lee. I'll follow up.

PF, this is a fine movie, but not particularly uplifting. It's not the same as the story of the book, In Cold Blood, which is a truly scary and depressing book, though IMHO, a masterpiece.

The movie is a story about an reporter who allows himself to become too close to his subjects, too personally involved with their story. In the end, this destroys him. I believe this really did happen to Truman Capote. I found it fascinating.

This film isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea and neither is In Cold Blood. But I "dug" them both.

chinaski

i have also search desperetly after these pics by avedon..

i have only found this one of perry smith:


http://www.ansoniadesign.com/capote/blood.htm

ps/ does anybody know where i can find pictures of the "black and white ball" held by capote in the sixties..


edit: i think that richard avedons pics are much protected and that it would be difficult to find any of these on the internet..allthough he did take these pictures for life magazine among with photos of the trial and the clutters home.

chinaski

bump

rutt

I bought a back copy of the Life with the photos. There are a handful of amazing shots, but the reproduction is terrible. Not as bad as it could be, but it definitely shows that my visual memories of Life aren't very accurate. I remember very vivid and true colors, and that is very much not true. The Avedon shots are B&W, of course, so color isn't an issue, but they are very grainy, something I suspect was done by Life and not by Avedon in order to make the whole think look more lurid. Also the blacks aren't very deep.

It was worth $30 (including s/h) to see these, but there is no mistaking them for original prints or even good art books repros.

If your local library has these, better to view there than to shell out good money. I don't think the magazines are very collectable.

chinaski

bump

dizzietizzie

some of the perry smith ones seem to be available on google now. (though the quality is poor)

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/images/column/122305/perrytrumanbest2.jpg

xroper

Did an "image" search on Google for Richard Hickock and there is a small series of the Avedon images with Capote and Smith ....long Address but here it is... if it doesn't work you'll find it in Hollywood-Elsewhere.com

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/images/column/122305/hickock2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2005/12/millers_crossin.php&h=305&w=475&sz=42&tbnid=n5ckUvKEu0bxBM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=126&hl=en&start=2&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drichard%2Bhickock%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

chinaski

thank you both very much!


it was worth the wait...

karmadhyana

Perry Smith mug shots
Hey, wanted to let you know about a mug shot I found for Perry Smith on the Wikipedia site--I couldn't find the Avedon shots, either, but at least here's a photo of the real life guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Smith_(murderer)

Peace.

rutt wrote:

Any photographer who has seen Capote will have been struck by the scene of Richard Avedon taking pictures of Perry Smith, Truman Capote, and Richard Hickock. The pictures in the movie are recreations, so the actors will be recognizable in the shots.

I really want to see the Avedon originals. I googled but found nothing. I have some Avedon books: Portraits, Autobiography, and Observations (co-authored with Truman Capote in 1959.) I dug through and could only find one of these pictures, one of Hickock, some of Capote, but none of Smith.

Does anyone know, are these published somewhere? Do I have to go to a museum to see them? Which museum?

(I suspect they may have been published in Life, but I don't even know how to begin finding that.)

wxwax

Hi karma, thanks for posting.

Linkie no worky, tho.

Neantaeus

Try This

rutt wrote:

Any photographer who has seen Capote will have been struck by the scene of Richard Avedon taking pictures of Perry Smith, Truman Capote, and Richard Hickock. The pictures in the movie are recreations, so the actors will be recognizable in the shots.

I really want to see the Avedon originals.

Just found this http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2005/12/millers_crossin.php

It isn't great but if it'll give you a taste of a couple of contacts.

Best.

chinaski

Neantaeus wrote:

Just found this http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2005/12/millers_crossin.php

It isn't great but if it'll give you a taste of a couple of contacts.

Best.

good stuff!

chinaski

:hung

chinaski

:cry

chinaski wrote:

:hung

chinaski

unlike other mugshot`s of perry you clearly see his "indian" blood in these pics..