mpdrolet:

Avedon’s instructions to his printer for an image taken of coal miner Lyal Burr at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Koosharem, Utah, May 7, 1981.

From Evidence 1944-1994: Richard Avedon

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**Here are some notes from Laura Wilson’s book Avedon at Work. In The American West. Wilson assisted Avedon for six years, and if you can spare the change, definitely pick it up:

-“The difficult and time-consuming process ok making these prints began in the basement darkroom of the Avedon studio in New York. Ruedi and David [Liittscwager] started with a set of 16-by-20 inch prints. Dick rejected them all. He felt that the tone was heavy; they were too black and had too much contrast. In reprinting, Dick’s directions were rarely technical. He would say simply, “Make the person more gentle,” or “Give the face more tension” This unconventional advice forced Ruedi and David to try to Understand the emotional content that Dick sought in each portrait. […] On test prints, Ruedi recorded the necessary manipulations with a red grease pencil. The exposure times, plus or minus, were in seconds to indicate where to darken or lighten an eyelid, or a nose, ot the wrinkle on a forehead.”