Nicole and I, as well as her mother and sister, went to the Corcoran Gallery of Art this past Sunday to catch the “Portraits of Power” exhibit, a survey of Richard Avedon’s photography starting with his early freelance work for Vogue and Life, through his final project, “Democracy,” for The New Yorker magazine.

Not wanting to deal with the expected throngs of people on the final day of such an exhibit, we got there nice and early, actually about 5 minutes before the museum had opened, and pretty much had the entire exhibit to ourselves. By the time we left, of course, the exhibit was packed, so consider our mission accomplished.

For someone (me) whose friends consider to be a decent photographer (thank you!), I know surprisingly little (practically nothing) about pretty much everything that has to do with photography. My friends sometimes talk about this famous photographer or that one, and often expect me to know about their work, but most often, I do not. They’ll chat me up about the focal length and f-stops of the new lens they got, asking for my advice about how to shoot with it or what applications it might best work in. Again, I’ve got nothing for you…

So, friends, be happy; I’m learning! When the Corcoran hosted two major photography exhibits within the past two years, Nicole and I jumped at the opportunity to check them out. I was ecstatic to see the Ansel Adams exhibit last year and this year it was Nicole pushing us to see Avedon. Ironically, the two could not be any different in their work.