RICHARD AVEDON

Audrey famously said that the first thing she saw when she arrived in America was the Statue of Liberty, and the second was Richard Avedon. Whipped from the New York docks straight to the photo studio, Audrey later remembered ...before I knew it, I was in front of Avedon's cameras, lights flashing... Richard snapping away a mile a minute, darting from one angle to the other like a hummingbird, everywhere at once, weaving his spell. Audrey and Avedon continued to collaborate over the years, their artist-muse relationship reflected in the movie Funny Face, which was said to be loosely based on Avedon's early career. Avedon worked as photographer and visual consultant on the film, his real life muse playing the model that inspired him. Along with director Stanley Donen, Avedon was praised for the dazzlingly sumptuous Technicolor visuals of the picture. He personally designed the film's title sequence and created the over-exposed close up of Hepburn's face that was used in the titles, the darkroom scene and featured on the cover of the film's soundtrack LP (see lot 71).

In January 1989, almost forty years after their first shoot, Audrey presented her friend with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, telling the audience For Richard, I've happily swung through swings, stood in clouds of steam, been drenched with rain, and descended endless flights of stairs without looking and without breaking my neck.... Only with Richard have I been able to shed my innate self-consciousness in front of the camera. Although unable to return the honour publicly, Avedon eloquently expressed here in writing the depth of his feeling towards his favourite model, once saying I am, and forever will be, devastated by the gift of Audrey Hepburn before my camera.