In a 2025 article, the BBC reported a 5% rise in cosmetic surgeries in the UK. There were a recorded 27,462 procedures, with more than nine in 10 of these being carried out on women. Reports also show that 65% of women feel pressured to look younger. Meanwhile, a recent study revealed that films are more likely to star an actor called Chris, or a talking animal, than a woman over 60. It’s clear that as a society, we prize youth in almost all facets of life. Yet, by 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be over 60. Many people are now resisting stereotypes and dated assumptions about what it means to get older. In 2023, UK company Ageism is Never in Style launched the “I look my age” campaign, pushing back against the assumption that people instinctively want to hide their age. It is in this climate that The Image Centre, Toronto presents an exhibition of Richard Avedon’s portraits that confront aging with honesty.
Richard Avedon Immortal: Portraits of Aging, 1951-2004 asks viewers to confront the physical realities of getting older. The show features almost 100 images by the renowned photographer, featuring portraits of artists, writers, musicians and performers, all captured in a way that highlights their wrinkles, weary eyes and other signs of time’s inevitable passage. Paul Roth, Director of The Image Centre and exhibition curator, says: “The intensity and distinctive style of Avedon’s image continues to surprise people today, likely because they diverge so much from our expectations of portraiture. These photographs show that growing older is not something to hide. Instead, it is proof that a life has been fully lived. They can be honest and sometimes uncomfortable to look at, but they also show what it means to be human.”
Born in New York in 1923, Avedon’s interest in photography began when he joined the armed forces in 1942 during WWII, serving as Photographer’s Mate Second Class in the US Merchant Marine. He described this experience: “my job was to do identity photographs. I must have taken pictures of one hundred thousand faces before it occurred to me I was becoming a photographer.” This experience became the bedrock of his creative career, working with Theatre Arls, Life, Look and Harper’s Bazaar, defining the USA’s tastes in fashion and contemporary art for decades. The artist was fascinated by the camera’s capacity for suggesting the personality and evoking the life of his subjects, famously saying: “my photographs don’t go below the surface. I have great faith in surfaces. A good one is full of clues.”
This lifelong exploration of the human condition comes to the fore at The Image Centre. The collection includes portraits of Ronald Reagan, Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Marquez, Duke Ellington, Patti Smith, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Truman Capote and the Dalai Lama, among many other cultural icons. In each image, Avedon broke many conventions of portraiture. Instead of flattering angles and lighting, he controversially chose stark backgrounds and exacting details, often celebrating what he referred to as ‘the avalanche of age’ in his subjects’ features. Particular highlights include a shot of writer Toni Morrison, her stance is powerful as she gazes directly at the camera with her hands clenched in front of her chest. In a 1958 image of Ezra Pound, Avedon captures him with his eyes clenched shut and his shirt buttons undone, revealing a level of vulnerability rarely associated with the celebrated poet.
Avedon made a name for himself as an artist who disrupted the status quo, reimagining the face of photography and fashion for new generations. Even now, 20 years after his death in 2004, the photographer continues to reveal new angles from which to view the world – and each other.
Richard Avedon Immortal: Portraits of Aging, 1951–2004 is at The Image Centre, Toronto until 5 December: theimagecentre.ca
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. Richard Avedon, Louise Nevelson, sculptor, New York, May 13, 1975. gelatin silver print © The Richard Avedon Foundation.
2. Richard Avedon, Toni Morrison, writer, New York, September 10, 2003, gelatin silver print © The Richard Avedon Foundation.
3. Richard Avedon, Samuel Beckett, writer, Paris, April 13, 1979, gelatin silver print © The Richard Avedon Foundation.
4. Richard Avedon, Ezra Pound, poet, at the home of William Carlos Williams, Rutherford, New Jersey, June 30, 1958, gelatin silver print © The Richard Avedon Foundation. Courtesy of Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona. Richard Avedon Archive, Gift of the Artist.
