Richard Avedon at the Art Gallery of WA

I went to see an exhibition of Richard Avedon's work at the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

I thought a photo of a female model standing in front of elephants was interesting. The model looked very graceful in a beautiful dress while elephants had a chain on their legs, and they were looking rather sad. The animals had lost their wildness and freedom while the model stood with her chin up with her pride and elegance.

I don't know what the photographer's intention was, but to me, the image was showing an ugliness lying behind beauty. Something we tend to overlook in our society. 

I must say other images didn't appeal to me much partly because of a terrible lighting that the gallery had set up. Almost every image had a spot light at it from a wrong angle and wrong height I guess, which was creating a terrible reflection not only on that image but also onto the image sitting next to it.

I moved left and right like a crab facing an enemy fish to find a better angle of attack, but my effort was fruitless. How I am meant to enjoy an art work if I just can't see the image properly?

Anyway, I picked up two brochures before I left the gallery, and it was ironic that these looked far better than what I saw in the exhibition.