Charlie Chaplin, 1952. Saturday, September 13. Avedon received a call at home from Chaplin, who asked if he could have his picture taken right away. Naturally, Dick was thrilled and hurried off to the Madison Avenue studio for a private sitting with no assistants. The result was a stunning photo of Chaplin giving his farewell gesture to America — hours later he was safely onboard a ship bound for Britain, having escaped the clutches of the Immigration Service after being denounced by the F.B.I. as a communist sympathizer.
As an apprentice to HIRO I heard about this event many times from HIRO. He had worked for Richard Avedon and remained friends throughout the years even though Avedon had let him go, fired him. Avedon did so because he said there was nothing more he could teach HIRO.
The first time I walked through the door of HIRO's studio, just off Times Square, I came face to face with Avedon's portrait of Chaplin which was purposely placed in that small entrance space so that a viewer stood eye to eye with Chaplin.
I was never a fan of Chaplin or his work, but this portrait mesmerizes me, still.
UPDATE: email question answer. The print was very large and encased in clear plexiglas in a small stark white entry way. One light overhead. BTW, this was HIRO's older studio before he moved to Central Park West.
