The strong link between Richard Avedon and France is being shown through over 200 photos in this new exhibition at the French National Library, not far from our hotels!

Here’s all the info.

Here’s a real treat for all fans of photography and/or fashion! Some exquisite black and white photos (with a few colour shots as a bonus) by Richard Avedon are currently on show at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France on their François-Mitterrand  campus, gallery n° 2 (directions at the bottom of this article).

The venerable fashion photographer and portraitist had a deep love of France, where he was able to immortalise a huge number of the country’s celebrities – Jean Cocteau, François Truffaut, Yves Montand, Coco Chanel, Catherine Deneuve, Jean Genet, Jeanne Moreau, Isabelle Adjani…

The beginning of the exhibition concentrates on the film Funny Face, for which Avedon was a ‘visual consultant’. Accompanying the filming in France allowed him access to many stars, including – inevitably – several great shots of Audrey Hepburn.

Next, the exhibition looks at the book that Avedon devised and designed in 1970 – Diary of a Century – inspired by the work of French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue who had been exposed at the MoMa. The American photographer was instrumental in bringing Lartigue to the attention of the world.

The final rooms show Avedon’s photos for the magazine Egoïste in the 1980s, with portraits of Yannick Noah, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Marguerite Duras…

Avedon’s France is thus shown through a film, a book and a magazine. As part of the upcoming Paris Photo event, it’s pretty much essential viewing.

To accompany the exhibition, there are guided visits for the visually impaired (book two weeks in advance), and a catalogue has just been published (800 pages!).

It’s available now in French for 59€ (here at amazon.fr) but if you can wait until March 2017, the English version (here) is strangely cheaper – 37.84€. ?

The exhibition Avedon’s France – Old World, New Look is at the BNF (here) until 26th February 2017

Open every day except Mondays and public holidays, from 10am-7pm (opens 1pm Sundays)

Admission: 9€ / 7€

Website: bnf.fr

Facebook: facebook.com/bibliothequebnf

Twitter: twitter.com/laBnF

Instagram: instagram.com/labnf