This text and map will go in the Avedon’s Manhattan section of the finished book.
Most of Richard Avedon’s life was spent living and working on that exciting and glorious island called Manhattan in New York City, U.S.A. Although he traveled extensively throughout the world, he always remained a New Yorker at heart. Many of the places associated with him still exist while others have yielded to the inevitable march of progress. The text and map below describes places that can still be seen and even experienced as well as pointing out those that are but memories.
For the ambitious among you, this list is organized as a do-it-yourself tour on foot and by bus or taxi. Or you might just go to see a few, or even just read about them. Numbers in parentheses correspond to numbers on the map.
CLICK on map to enlarge.
From an early age through all of his teens Richard lived with his parents in a spacious apartment at 55 East 86th Street (photo, right) (1), on the uptown side between Madison and Park avenues. Built in 1924 and fifteen stories high, this building still stands and looks much as it did when the Avedon family moved in during the early 1930s. His father had been a prosperous merchant throughout the 1920s, but the Great Depression put them in reduced circumstances although they continued to live quite well as this rather exclusive address suggests.
From here it is only a short stroll to Fifth Avenue and down a few blocks to the magnificent complex of imposing buildings known as the Metropolitan Museum of Art (photo, below) (2), the largest such institution in the Western Hemisphere. The young Avedon frequented these galleries in his quest for elegance and beauty, which he found especially in the works of ancient Egypt, the Etruscans, and such modern artists as Amedeo Modigliani. These highly stylized images feature simplicity of line and form in the human figure, which deeply influenced his later photography.
From September to November of 1978 the museum held a major retrospective of Avedon’s fashion photography between the years 1947 through 1977, which later traveled to other museums in Dallas, Atlanta, and Tokyo. There is a picture from this time of Dick dancing down the museum steps, arms outstretched, under the large banner reading “Avedon.” In 2002 the Met held another major exhibition, with a huge banner above the entrance steps reading “Richard Avedon Portraits.”
The Metropolitan Museum presently has dozens of Avedon prints in their permanent collection.
Another nearby gallery that featured Avedon’s work is the fortress-like Whitney Museum of American Art (3) on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 75th Street. The 1994 exhibition there, which ran from late March through late June, was billed as “Richard Avedon: Evidence 1944-1994.” Unlike most of his shows, this one focused on the unity of purpose between his portraiture, reportage, and fashion photography, and celebrated his profound contribution to the history of the art as well as his relentless quest for self-knowledge.
A further stroll down Fifth Avenue, with Central Park to your right, brings you to The Frick Collection (photo, above) (4). This gated, block-long mansion has its entrance on 70th Street. As a boy, young Richard would often visit here with his mother, admiring the classical works of 14th-to-19th-century European art, furnishings, and decorations. He was enthralled by the Fragonards, the Gainsboroughs, the Goyas, the Reynolds, and especially by the Rembrandts. Through these portraits he developed the belief that served him so well in later years — that faces are the windows to the soul.
Continuing down Fifth Avenue alongside the park takes you past locations where, as a young man, he witnessed the most innovative fashion photographer of the 1930s, Martin Munkácsi, at work. Dick also used this spot for his famous 1965 portrait of singer Bob Dylan. Steps at 64th Street lead down to the Arsenal (5) of the 1840s, a necessary stop for all photographers doing commercial work in city’s parks as this is where the permits are issued. It is also the entrance to the Central Park Wildlife Conservation Center, formerly know as the Zoo.
Now it’s a lovely short stroll under shady trees (top photo, above) to Grand Army Plaza at 60th Street. Avedon’s first studio was a block from here, at 640 Madison Avenue (1930's photo, above) (6) between 60th and 59th streets. The block-long, two-story building was torn down around 1955 and replaced with the present unremarkable office structure, but back in the 1930s it contained the skylit studio of fashion photographer George Platt Lynes. This became Richard Avedon’s studio in 1946 after Lynes moved to Hollywood. Dick remained there until sometime in 1954, and it was here that I first began assisting him in September of 1952.
Turn to page 000 in the Appendix for a complete description of this studio.
Across 57th Street, at 40 West near the Avenue of the Americas, is the Marlborough Gallery (7). In 1975 this was the venue of Avedon’s exhibition “Portraits: 1969-1975,” notable for its huge prints and consistent use of his signature white background as part of his final, mature style.
Back on Madison Avenue, at the northwest corner of 56th Street once stood an old office building at Number 572 (8), whose site is now part of the immense 590 Madison Building. This was home to both Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country magazines, both of which Avedon worked for extensively from 1945 through 1965. Back in the 1940s and early 50s this was also the lair of Alexey Brodovitch, the influential art director who first discovered Dick’s talent and became his chief mentor.
Avedon’s first job as a photographer was in 1944 at the Bonwit Teller (9) fashion department store on Fifth Avenue at the northeast corner of 56th Street, now replaced by the Trump Tower.
Continue down Fifth to 53rd Street. Between here and Madison Avenue, on the north side of 53rd, is one of New York’s most delightful hidden gems. Paley Park (photo, above) (10) was a gift to the people of New York by one of Dick’s friends, William S. Paley, the founder and long-time C.E.O. of CBS. This urban oasis of 1967 sports a 20-foot-high waterfall spanning the width of the park as a backdrop to the airy trees and lightweight furniture at which visitors can relax and perhaps have lunch. The story goes that Paley, who loved hot dogs, could not find suitable ones from the local sidewalk vendors. To solve this dilemma he purchased the former Stork Club building, tore it down, created the park, and had a snack bar installed that serves great hot dogs (and other items) at very reasonable prices. It’s a delightful place for a quick lunch. I especially recommend the chili dogs. I would also imagine that Avedon ate here a few times with his friend Paley, although this would have been after I left.
Another good place for a quick-and-cheap lunch is a pushcart named “Hallo Berlin” near the northwest corner of 54th Street and Fifth Avenue, which I have been frequenting on-and-off for over 20 years. Billing itself as "New York's Wurst Pushcart," its food is strictly German, with treats such as knockwurst and bratwurst. This has nothing to do with Avedon, but I included it anyway because I can.
Turn west on 53rd Street to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (11), one of the world’s preeminent cultural institutions. Founded in 1929 in temporary quarters, its present building dates from 1939 and has been substantially altered and enlarged over the years. MoMA was a pioneer in recognizing photography as a fine art in the same league with painting and sculpture. Avedon had a one-man show here in 1974 that consisted of touching portraits of his dying father, Jacob Israel Avedon, taken during the last years of his life. The museum also has a large number of Avedon prints, both portraits and fashion, in its permanent collection. Just west of the main entrance, and part of the same complex at number 25, are the offices of the Richard Avedon Foundation. This organization is charged with maintaining Avedon’s legacy through touring exhibitions around the world, through publications, and by providing prints to museums, libraries, and scholarly institutions. Visits can only be made by prior arrangement, and then only by researchers, scholars, and those on Foundation business.
Some of Avedon’s major advertising clients were located nearby, at 488 Madison Avenue between 52nd and 51st streets. Once the home of Look Magazine, the building remains as it was although that publication is history. Another tenant here was the advertising agency Norman, Craig & Kummel, for whom Dick did a great deal of work over the years on the Revlon, Maidenform, Schick, Chanel, Clairol, and Hertz accounts.
The International Center of Photography (photo, right) (12), on the Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) near the northwest corner of 43rd Street, was founded in 1974 and moved into its present galleries in 2000. Its major exhibition “Avedon Fashion 1944-2002” was held from May 15 through September 20, 2009. This was the most comprehensive exploration of Avedon’s fashion photography ever attempted, and included some 175 photographs. Among these were both vintage and modern prints, original contact prints, and past issues of the magazines in which they appeared.
There’s absolutely nothing to see today, but the east side of Fifth Avenue at 39th Street was once the site of the Avedon Building (photo, left) (13), home to Dick’s father’s ladies’ wear store known as Avedon’s Fifth Avenue. This fell victim to the Great Depression, but survived at another location in, of all places, Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The building was still there in the 1960s when Dick pointed it out to me as we were passing by, but has since been replaced by a nondescript structure.
The neighborhood around Madison Avenue north of 42nd Street was home to a great many advertising agencies, including several of Avedon’s best clients such as BBD&O and J. Walter Thompson. Several of his suppliers were located in the former Grand Central Palace (14), a massive 1911 structure at 480 Lexington Avenue, between 46th and 47th streets. Sadly, this was torn down in 1963. Originally designed for exhibition spaces, it was home to a number of photography studios, Bernard Arkin Photo Supplies (Dick’s principal supplier), Modernage Photographic Services (which made many of his largest prints), and Harriet Woolen Retouching.
Avedon’s second studio was at 203 East 49th Street (photo, above) (15), on the northeast corner of Third Avenue. Frank Finocchio, Dick’s studio manager at the time, and I first checked this place out in early 1954, arriving there on the old Third Avenue El. The spacious studio area was on the second floor of the historic 19th-century two-story building, above the famous Manny Wolf’s Steakhouse. Although the restaurant is now called Smith & Wollensky’s, today the structure itself looks almost exactly as it did in the 1950s. There were actually two studio rooms, the smaller one used by Dick’s associate photographer Bill Bell, and later by Hiro Wakabayashi.
A complete description of this studio can be found on page 000 of the Appendix.
Continue down 49th Street to First Avenue, cross it, and take the small street that leads uphill to Beekman Place (16). When I first started with Avedon in 1952 he was living in a townhouse midway between 49th and 50th streets, on the west side of the place. That three-story house is long gone, replaced by a luxury apartment building.
Head uptown on First Avenue to East 58th Street and turn right. At the far end, overlooking the East River, is a small gated driveway called River View Terrace (photo, left, last house on right) (17). Avedon and his family moved into a townhouse here on August 31, 1964 and were still there when I left his employ.
By bus, cab, or even on foot, continue north on Sutton Place, passing under the Queensboro Bridge, after which it becomes York Avenue, to East 75th Street. Along the way you will pass, on the right, Rockefeller University, Cornell Medical Center, and the New York Hospital. The old carriage house at 407 East 75th Street was Avedon’s final home and studio (18), which he purchased in 1970. A total of 7,000 square feet in size, it was put on sale in 2005 with an asking price of $6.75 million.
Head downtown on either Second or Lexington avenues to 65th Street, turning right to Park Avenue. The large old apartment building at 625 Park Avenue (19) was home to the Avedons from the late 1950s until the early 1960s. It looks exactly the same today. Their apartment occupied one-half of an upper floor; the other half was home to Madame Helena Rubinstein of cosmetics fame.
Saunter down Park Avenue, passing the Chase Bank on the southwest corner of 60th Street. This is where Dick kept his money, and where he once sent me to borrow a $5,000 bill as a photo prop. With a wink in the eye, I assured the bank manager that we would not take a picture of it. The wink was returned.
A left turn on 58th Street takes you to the site of Avedon’s third studio (photo of new building, right) (20) at 110 East. He moved in here sometime in the late 1950s and remained until it was torn down in the late 1970s. The two studio rooms, offices, workrooms, and darkrooms were on the fifth floor, with both his and his representative’s offices on the penthouse level. The latter rooms were also used by Alexey Brodovitch for his classes, while the second studio room was used by associate photographer Hiro Wakabayashi.
This studio is described in full on page 000 of the Appendix.
The tour is over, and you can pass the site of Roger’s Bar around the corner on Lexington Avenue between 58th and 57th streets. This is where the sandwiches for the almost-daily studio lunches came from. Unfortunately, it is now a Starbucks, one of only 13,387 in Manhattan alone.
This information remains incomplete at the time of posting, and may contain minor errors. Corrections will be made as I dig up more information from long-forgotten notes and other sources. After all, it’s been some 45 years since I was involved with Avedon. If you spot something wrong, or if you have more to add, PLEASE let me know.
Text and map copyright © 2009 by Earl Steinbicker.
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