Is Avedon's American West As True As The Duke's?

 May 1, 2023

   Art should be dangerous. When it becomes tame we lose interest.

Daily Whip Out: "Rurales at The Door"

      Speaking of danger, Dan The Man and I have been noodling some new ideas for Kid shirts. The wording is just temporary, but I like where it's going.

Oh, that Kid Krazy Boy!

   Of course, I'm speaking of myself and Dan, not that other guy. Also, our goal is to record the grim gulf between frontier mythology and reality. And speaking of someone else who attempted to do just that.

"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

"Marlboro Country is always just a little west of where you are."

—Laura Wilson,  Richard Avedon's research assistant on the project

"My vision's not a romantic one."

—Richard Avedon, on his 17 states, 189 towns, 752 subjects and 17,000 sheets of film shot over six summers from 1979 to 1984 and ultimately called "In The American West."