Richard Avedon (1923-2004) is one American photographer whose work I find inspiring. I am particularly fond of the way he shot Judy Garland (1922-1969) throughout the 50s and the 60s. The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet me in St-Louis (1944) and A Star is Born (1954) actress and singer surely was not “over the rainbow” throughout her life: She met her untimely death due to an overdose of barbiturates, the drug that made her suffer throughout her life. I suppose these images capture her sense of youth, glamor and eventually desperation beautifully, very far from the typical “Dorothy” we all know and love.
Here are the photos I dug up of her, shot by Avedon. All rights go to the photographer. I am not the author of these images.
Judy Garland, 1951.
Judy Garland, 1951
Judy Garland & Richard Avedon, 1956
Judy Garland, New York, 1961
Judy Garland, 1963
NB: Check out Richard Avedon’s portrait of Carl Th. Dreyer here: https://kinoimages.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/dreyer-copenhagen/
& Truman Capote: https://kinoimages.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/tribute-to-authors-screenwriters-three-portraits-of-truman-capote/
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