An exquisitely produced new publication of In the American West: Photographs by Richard Avedon, a landmark project of classic American photography

First published by Abrams in 1985 in conjunction with the groundbreaking exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, the book is now available in this lush 40th anniversary edition.

Richard Avedon was the greatest American photographer of his generation. For In the American West, he traveled for five years, meeting and photographing the ordinary people populating America’s most extraordinary landscape.

The resulting book includes 103 meticulously printed black-and-white photographs, an essay by Avedon on his working methods and portrait philosophy, and a journal of the project by Laura Wilson. The reissuing of this legendary book, out of print for more than a decade, is a major publishing event in the photography world.

“The reissue of this legendary book, out of print for more than a decade, is a major event . . . A striking portrait of this region and its people, all the while challenging the traditional representations that glorify the American West.”

* LOUISE CARTIER-BRESSON, Visuals Editor, GQ France *

Richard Avedon (1923–2004) was one of the most influential photographers of the second half of the 20th century. His portrait work comprises an authoritative record of the era, and his many books set a standard for photographic publishing. As a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker, Avedon defined the medium of photography for his own and future generations. Laura Wilson is a photographer whose previous books are Hutterites of Montana, Watt Matthews of Lambshead, and Avedon at Work, which covers the five years she worked with Avedon making In the American West. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, the Washington Post Magazine, and London’s Sunday Times Magazine. She lives in Dallas.