This background helped me understand Richard Avedon’s work, especially as it pertains to Warhol and The Factory by contextualizing what the two have in common (different film techniques, etc.) and how Avedon’s bisexuality and Warhol’s gayness tinges their work. Both Warhol and Avedon were united in their shaping of art in the 1960s in addition to the movements of Second Wave feminism, Civil Rights, and Free Love, as well as the Cold War and Vietnam War.

As for the image itself, it is actually a compilation of three different photos, like Avedon is making a collage. We see several pivotal figures in The Factory, Warhol himself notwithstanding: Paul Morrissey, who directed and acted in several films, is on the very left. By posing him on a naked actor (Joe Dallesandro) and next to another actress (Candy Darling) suggests that this is just another job to the three of them. Not to mention that displaying a trans woman’s penis and having her stare back oppositionally is very contrary to what we think of trans women. Women’s genitalia is considered widely to be taboo, and if they have a penis, disgusting. If you look at a woman with a penis and she doesn’t know, it’s fine. If you look at a woman with a penis and she looks back, it is vanity. Looking back gives someone agency.

The second photograph cuts out Candy Darling save for her hair and a sliver of an arm; we see next three naked actors (Eric Emerson, Jay Johnson, and Tom Hompertz) and a leather-wearing poet (Gerard Malanga). There is commentary to make on Emerson’s bisexuality and Johnson’s brother being romantically involved with Warhol at this point, but what I want to point out is the juxtaposition of Malanga’s poetry with the leather subculture versus the naked actors effectively showing off how manly they are through a) display of their penises and b) flexing of the upper arm, in Emerson’s case. Poetry is a gender-neutral thing across the world, but in the West, if a man writes poetry and not novels, he is gay; and the leather subculture is, in many ways, hypermasculine. With Avedon choosing to put Malanga—or not making Malanga change—in leather, he is reflecting back at us our conceptions of gender and gendered activities.

The last photograph cuts out half of Malanga vertically; next to him is the poet Viva, Morrissey again, actors Taylor Mead and Brigid Polk, Joe Dallesandro, and Warhol himself. Viva would play a role in Warhol’s most explicit movie Blue Movie, while Taylor Mead starred in other underground movies. Brigid Polk was actually the daughter of Richard E. Berlin, and by becoming a member of The Factory, she eschewed her socialite life. We can also see Polk’s exposed breast. Obviously, Polk is overweight. In many ways, attraction to fat people is treated as deviant or are effectively unloveable as a result of their weight. By Polk exposing herself and looking at us, she dares us to see her as attractive.

Citations list:

Avedon, Richard. Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, headed by Julian Bond, Atlanta, Georgia, March 23, 1963. 1963. The Work, Richard Avedon Foundation, New York City, https://www.avedonfoundation.org/the-work. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Cotter, Holland. “Richard Avedon: ‘Murals & Portraits.’” Richard Avedon - “Murals & Portraits” - NYTimes.Com, 5 July 2012, web.archive.org/web/20120707102802/www.nytimes.com/2012/07/06/arts/design/richard-avedon-murals-portraits.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2024.

“Findlaw’s United States Supreme Court Case and Opinions.” JACOBELLIS v. OHIO, 378 U.S. 184 (1964) | FindLaw, caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/378/184.html. Accessed 17 Mar. 2024.

Gopnik, Blake. “Warhol’s Death: Not so Simple, after All.” The New York Times, 21 Feb. 2017, web.archive.org/web/20170222104252/www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/arts/design/andy-warhols-death-not-so-routine-after-all.html. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.

GovInfo, 1996, www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-104publ199/html/PLAW-104publ199.htm. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Grundberg, Andy. “Richard Avedon, the Eye of Fashion, Dies at 81.” The New York Times > Arts > Richard Avedon, the Eye of Fashion, Dies at 81, 1 Oct. 2004, web.archive.org/web/20120810050450/www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/arts/01CND-AVED.html. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.

Levine, Marty. “Film File: FBI Gives Public a Peek at Warhol ‘Obscenity’ File.” Pittsburgh City Paper, Pittsburgh City Paper, 23 June 2011, www.pghcitypaper.com/news/film-file-fbi-gives-public-a-peek-at-warhol-obscenity-file-1397581. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

“MISSISSIPI CODE OF 1972 | PAW Document Page.” Lexis®, Lexis, advance.lexis.com/documentpage/?pdmfid=1000516&crid=e055e023-912b-41fb-95f4-2de71f06d466&nodeid=ABYAAPAABABC&nodepath=%2FROOT%2FABY%2FABYAAP%2FABYAAPAAB%2FABYAAPAABABC&level=4&haschildren=&populated=false&title=%C2%A7%2B97-29-59.%2BUnnatural%2Bintercourse.&indicator=true&config=00JABhZDIzMTViZS04NjcxLTQ1MDItOTllOS03MDg0ZTQxYzU4ZTQKAFBvZENhdGFsb2f8inKxYiqNVSihJeNKRlUp&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fstatutes-legislation%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A8P6B-8B52-8T6X-73W5-00008-00&ecomp=7gf5kkk&prid=f61ff3ec-3068-4194-994f-f0e7ce32c270. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.

Nickels, Thom. “Out in History : Collected Essays : Nickels, Thom : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, Sarasota, FL : Starbooks Press, 2005, archive.org/details/outinhistorycoll0000nick/page/22/mode/2up?view=theater. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. "Gay Liberation Front march on Times Square" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1969. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/956a5f00-264d-0137-1a15-21e4cc4ff485. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Marshall, Rick. “Obscenity Case Files: Jacobellis v. Ohio (‘I Know It When I See It’).” Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, cbldf.org/about-us/case-files/obscenity-case-files/obscenity-case-files-jacobellis-v-ohio-i-know-it-when-i-see-it/. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

“Richard Avedon: Murals.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023, www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/richard-avedon-murals. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

“The Work.” The Richard Avedon Foundation, www.avedonfoundation.org/the-work. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Scalia, Antonin, Anthony Kennedy, et al. “United States v. Windsor Decision : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, Oct. 2012, archive.org/details/717814-united-states-v-windsor-decision. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Scalia, Antonin, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, et al. “Obergefell v. Hodges - Supreme Court.” Wayback Machine, Oct. 2014, web.archive.org/web/20160610201120/https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Solanas, Valerie. SCUM Manifesto. V. Solanas, 1967. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.