Celebrating a century since the birth of the photographic legend Richard Avedon. Plus: the Bloomsbury group’s fashion legacy; marital mendacity on the big screen; and Freddie Mercury’s wardrobe goes under the hammer
PHOTOGRAPHY
A look back at Richard Avedon’s greatest hits in the year he would have marked his 100th birthday
PERUSING HIS FRIEND RICHARD AVEDON’S LATEST PORTRAIT series in 1959, Truman Capote observed ‘a shining surf of faces, a few laughing and afire with fun and devil-may-care, others straining to communicate the thunder of their interior selves…’ This spontaneity and emotional perspicacity characterised the legendary American photographer’s groundbreaking body of work, much of which was commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar. For the pages of this magazine, he created unparalleled fashion stories and captured iconic 20th-century stars from Audrey Hepburn to Sophia Loren. He would have turned 100 this year and, to celebrate, Avedon aficionados including Chloë Sevigny, Christy Turlington and Elton John have each shared a favourite image, which are published in a landmark book.
‘Avedon 100’ (£80, Gagosian and Rizzoli) is published in paperback on 5 September.
THEATRE
Maggie O’Farrell’s beloved novel Hamnet comes to the West End
WHETHER THE THEATRICAL ADAPTATION OF Maggie O’Farrell’s Women’s Prize for Fiction-winning novel Hamnet would draw crowds was never in doubt: tickets for its Stratford-upon-Avon run earlier this year sold out swiftly, and the same is expected when it makes its West End debut at London’s Garrick Theatre this September. What was less certain was how effectively the book would translate to the stage, given that much of its brilliance derives from O’Farrell’s elegant prose and the characters’ interior lives, rather than dialogue.
That challenge was taken up by the actress and writer Lolita Chakrabarti, best known for her acclaimed stage interpretation of Life of Pi, who says her approach was about capturing the spirit of the book rat
