Carrie Brownstein on a Portrait of Cat Power by Richard Avedon

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For The New Yorker’s series Takes, Carrie Brownstein—the co-creator of Sleater-Kinney and “Portlandia”—writes about an enduring rock-and-roll image. In the summer of 2003, the musician Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power, was transitioning from an indie darling to a major rock artist, and the staff writer Hilton Als wrote a profile of her in this magazine. Facing his piece was a full-page portrait of Marshall, by the celebrated photographer Richard Avedon, that puts her in the lineage of rock rebels of generations past. With a long ash dangling from her cigarette, a Bob Dylan T-shirt, and her jeans half unzipped, Cat Power “maybe doesn’t give a shit about being in The New Yorker,” Brownstein says, “which I can’t say is usually the vibe.” Avedon’s image reminds Brownstein “to keep remembering . . . to keep going back to that place that feels sacred and special and uncynical.”

Carrie Brownstein’s Take on Richard Avedon’s portrait of Cat Power appeared in the April 28, 2025, issue of The New Yorker.

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