In 1979, Avedon was a celebrated fashion and portrait photographer accustomed to working with celebrities, models, and politicians. But a commission from the Carter led him to pursue a different subject: poor and working-class people throughout the western U.S., each photographed in the artist’s signature style, using a large-format camera and a stark white background.

When the book In the American West was published in 1985, many found it disparaging and judgmental. The New York Times thought Avedon had “an artistic vision of the American West as purgatory, if not hell, on earth,” and Art in America asserted that the artist intended to portray it “as a blighted culture that spews out casualties by the bucket.” This is not what Avedon claimed for the project; he called it “a tribute” to people who lived hard lives. In the decades since, his complex and evocative portraits have made In the American West a landmark photographic project.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)