Another image from Avedon's 'Women' exhibition at The Gagosian in Beverly Hills. I've always loved his 'In The American West' series and it was a big influence on 'Pony Kids', but then Avedon has always been an influence (worth mentioning August Sander and Diane Arbus here too!). I remember going to photograph/interview Diana Vreeland in the Costume Institute at The Met in my school holidays, Easter 1979. After doing the interview Diana Vreeland picked up the phone, rang "Dick" (Avedon) and said, "there's a cute young English photographer here you have to meet". Yikes! Fortunately/unfortunately Avedon was going to China the next day and couldn't meet. However, I did manage to pick up a signed copy of 'Avedon: photographs 1944-1977' - which had been published the previous year to coincide with a retrospective at the Met - and have treasured it ever since. Great to see some of the prints from that exhibition at The Gagosian. The only time I came closer to meeting Avedon was when we brushed shoulders at Galway airport - a portacabin at the time - in the late Eighties or early Nineties. By the time I realised it was him he had gone. A giant.