Exploring Aging Through Avedon's Portraits at Montreal's Museum

The Immortal exhibition, on now in Montreal, features close to 100 portraits by Richard Avedon of public figures like Toni Morrison, Truman Capote, Duke Ellington, Patti Smith and Jean Renoir. (Above Louise Nevelson, sculptor, New York, May 13, 1975, gelatin silver print / Note all images © The Richard Avedon Foundation)

*William Casby, born into slavery, Algiers, Louisiana, March 24, 1963*, gelatin silver print, 135.3 x 107.9 cm.

Avedon, the iconic portraitist and fashion photographer, routinely represented advancing age in the faces of many of his subjects: from artists and writers to politicians and performers.

A close-up portrait of a woman with grey hair styled in braids, wearing a black leather jacket, looking confidently at the camera with her hands clasped together. — *Toni Morrison, writer, New York, September 10, 2003*, gelatin silver print, 40.6 x 50.8 cm.

Few artists have so consistently, or controversially, represented aging as Avedon, who explored this taboo subject throughout his career as America’s most influential portrait photographer.

Richard Avedon (1923-2004), *Richard Avedon, photographer, New York, May 31, 2002*, gelatin silver print, 62.3 x 145.5 cm. Courtesy of Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona. Richard Avedon Archive, gift of the artist.

These portraits—visual “sermons on bravado,” as Avedon sometimes called them—dramatized the universal experience of aging and testified unflinchingly to the determination with which people confront the relentless advance of mortality.

A vintage black and white portrait of a woman and a man standing closely together, both with serious expressions. The woman has dark, styled hair and bold makeup, while the man has silver hair, dressed in a suit and tie. — The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Waldorf Astoria, suite 28A, New York, April 16, 1957, gelatin silver print

The exhibition is on at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts through Aug. 9 2026, and then opens at The Image Centre in Toronto in September 2026, Immortal features portraits dating from the early 1950s until the photographer’s death in 2004.

A group of visitors observes artworks in a gallery featuring large portraits mounted on the wall, with a display case in the foreground containing documents and materials. — Installation view, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, published in The Tribune, McGill University (Photo by *Armen Erzingatzian* )

Avedon (1923–2004) was a defining figure in postwar American photography. A New Yorker by birth, he joined Harper’s Bazaar after World War II, where his kinetic fashion images redefined the genre. There, and later at Vogue, he consolidated his reputation as the leading fashion photographer of his generation.

Avedon’s studio produced brand-defining advertising campaigns for Revlon, Calvin Klein, and Versace, among dozens of other companies. Avedon was also a celebrated portraitist, producing intimate, often confrontational images that appeared in major magazines. Many were exhibited in museums around the world.