On May 9th, 1981, Richard Avedon, a fashion and news photographer, took a series of pictures of Ronald Fischer entitled "beekeeper". One of his more famous works, this was taken at UC Davis with the help of entomologists. Prints from the series hang in several major metropolitan museum collections.
In it, a white man with a shaved head stands against a stark white background. Across his face and naked torso dark bees crawl over his skin. This black and white photo was chosen from a shoot that included various facial expressions of pain and other emotions. In the final image selected, he stands serene.
Avedon had advertised for several months in beekeeping magazines looking for a model. See the Ronald Fischer page for his comments about the shoot.
Links
- You can find the image (one of a series) here.
- More information about Avedon can be found at his Wikipedia entry.
- The Chicago Times printed a story 21 years after the photo shoot.
- Photographer Richard Munn has an excellent article about the shoot.
