“My photographs don’t go below the surface,” Richard Avedon once said. “I have great faith in surfaces. A good one is full of clues.” For almost 60 years, Avedon’s photographs graced the covers of Vogue, Life, Look, and the magazine that gave him his start, Harper’s Bazaar. Avedon captured high fashion and society, often setting his subjects against a signature white background. While he championed the power of surfaces, no one would call Avedon’s work superficial. “(re) Framing Conversations” examines his deep cultural awareness, which was embodied in his documentation of subjects both social and political. Twenty of these photographs—including portraits of Malcolm X, Dorothy Parker, and Charlie Chaplin—place Avedon against that same white background, and in a new light. —Clara Molot