One fine summer day at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, my heart was stolen by a 1954 photograph by Richard Avedon. It was an exhibit of his 1944-2000 collection of fashion photography. He is a very famous photographer that did many-a-cover pages for Harper’s Bazar, Vogue etc. and worked with an impressive number of celebrities, including the Beatles (the four psychedelic individual portraits used in their ‘1’ album- if you see it, you’ll know what I’m talking about), Marylin Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Suzy Parker and so on.
While I was slowly appreciating the ‘Paris by Night’ collection on display, I came across one particular photograph, the very photograph that now sets the benchmark for any and all fashion photographs. It portrayed Sunny Harnett stepping out of an old black Ford, wearing a long evening dress by Dior with a big bow on the front of her hip being greeted by a butler. From the moment I saw it, I fell in love. I stared at it for hours. My friends didn’t think much of the photograph but I was hooked. It was the most beautiful piece of photography I had ever seen. I am not exaggerating, it was the most breath taking photograph I had ever seen. The way the he caught the light that hit her protruding hip and the flirtatious look she gave the butler will stay embedded in my mind forever. I knew I needed to have at least a copy of that photograph for myself.
Love struck, I Googled it for days, but just could not find it. Heartbroken, after months of searching I gave up and finally went back to the museum to take pictures of it as memorabilia and as proof for anyone who reads this post. You should consider yourself lucky because you can see it for yourself now. However, if by chance you do get to go see it for yourself one day, take your time, take it all in, and I truly mean all, stare at it for hours, ignore everything that is going on around you, you will realize what I was talking about and how it made me feel and I sincerely hope Sunny Harnett has the same mesmerizing effect on you as she did on me and you too would fall in love.
