Volume 55, Number 13 · August 14, 2008
Burdock
By Janet Malcolm
Richard Avedon's portraits of famous people have been a model for my portraits of uncelebrated leaves. Avedon radically extended photography's capacity for cruelty. The ravages of time and circumstances on the faces he photographed were mercilessly, sometimes gruesomely, recorded. As Avedon sought out faces on which life had left its mark, so I prefer older, flawed leaves to young, unblemished specimens—leaves to which something has happened. An insect has made holes in them, a blight has created strange sickly patches on their skins, rainstorms have ground dust into their veins, wind has torn pieces from them.
Feature, 721 words
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