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Richard Avedon
About the Photographer

“All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”
–Richard Avedon

What do Jean Genet, Jimmy Durante, Brigitte Bardot, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacques Cousteau, Andy Warhol, and Lena Horne have in common? They were a few of the many personalities caught on film by photographer Richard Avedon. For more than fifty years, Richard Avedon’s portraits have filled the pages of the country’s finest magazines. His stark imagery and brilliant insight into his subjects’ characters has made him one of the premier American portrait photographers.

Born in New York in 1923, Richard Avedon dropped out of high school and joined the Merchant Marine’s photographic section. Upon his return in 1944, he found a job as a photographer in a department store. Within two years he had been “found” by an art director at Harper’s Bazaar and was producing work for them as well as Vogue, Look, and a number of other magazines. During the early years, Avedon made his living primarily through work in advertising. His real passion, however, was the portrait and its ability to express the essence of its subject.

As Avedon’s notoriety grew, so did the opportunities to meet and photograph celebrities from a broad range of disciplines. Avedon’s ability to present personal views of public figures, who were otherwise distant and inaccessible, was immediately recognized by the public and the celebrities themselves. Many sought out Avedon for their most public images. His artistic style brought a sense of sophistication and authority to the portraits. More than anything, it is Avedon’s ability to set his subjects at ease that helps him create true, intimate, and lasting photographs.

Throughout his career Avedon has maintained a unique style all his own. Famous for their minimalism, Avedon portraits are often well lit and in front of white backdrops. When printed, the images regularly contain the dark outline of the film in which the image was framed. Within the minimalism of his empty studio, Avedon’s subjects move freely, and it is this movement which brings a sense of spontaneity to the images. Often containing only a portion of the person being photographed, the images seem intimate in their imperfection. While many photographers are interested in either catching a moment in time or preparing a formal image, Avedon has found a way to do both.

Beyond his work in the magazine industry, Avedon has collaborated on a number of books of portraits. In 1959 he worked with Truman Capote on a book that documented some of the most famous and important people of the century. Observations included images of Buster Keaton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Pablo Picasso, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mae West. Around this same time he began a series of images of patients in mental hospitals. Replacing the controlled environment of the studio with that of the hospital he was able to recreate the genius of his other portraits with non-celebrities. The brutal reality of the lives of the insane was a bold contrast to his other work. Years later he would again drift from his celebrity portraits with a series of studio images of drifters, carnival workers, and working class Americans.

Throughout the 1960s Avedon continued to work for Harper’s Bazaar and in 1974 he collaborated with James Baldwin on the book Nothing Personal. Having met in New York in 1943, Baldwin and Avedon were friends and collaborators for more than thirty years. For all of the 1970s and 1980s Avedon continued working for Vogue magazine, where he would take some of the most famous portraits of the decades. In 1992 he became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker, and two years later the Whitney Museum brought together fifty years of his work in the retrospective, “Richard Avedon: Evidence”. He was voted one of the ten greatest photographers in the world by Popular Photography magazine, and in 1989 received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London. Today, his pictures continue to bring us a closer, more intimate view of the great and the famous.

Avedon died on October 1st, 2004.

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32 responses
Meemee -- September 25th, 2008 at 9:22 am

Should be easier to find pictures!!!!!!!!!!

lucy -- October 1st, 2008 at 10:25 am

helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

flo-t -- October 2nd, 2008 at 8:54 am

hey what are you doing

bob -- October 7th, 2008 at 3:18 am

rarg photography rocks just wish it was easier to find the pics i need

jesus -- October 10th, 2008 at 9:15 am

blah blah blah you all suck, this site didnt help me

Eduardo -- October 23rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm

yes indeed, non help at all!!!!

RK9 -- October 27th, 2008 at 11:04 am

Muhahahahahahahha!!!

sabrina -- October 29th, 2008 at 8:46 am

ii must sayy that this site did help me out. ;)
it gave me some info. that ii have been looking for.

lyn -- November 10th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

It’s really easy to find the pictures. Go to Google images and type in Richard Avedon. Duh!

Relevant -- November 11th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

If you look on google images Im sure you’ll find something. This page is a biography of Avedon. Excellent page for my research. Thank you American Masters.

Josh -- November 16th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

Anyway to get this on dvd for around $20. I only see used copies for $70+

bob -- November 21st, 2008 at 10:49 am

man do yall not have any thing better to do then write comments

lucy -- December 3rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm

bob is a hypocrit because he is righting a comment too!!!
dumbo onion head

Zak S -- December 8th, 2008 at 10:33 am

:)

joshuaferdinand.com -- December 8th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

I find his working method very interesting. He is one of the few photographers that has been able to bridge the gap between commercial and fine art, and do it with some sort of class.

STANLEY WEISBART -- December 21st, 2008 at 2:08 am

HOW cAN I GET A QUALITY COPY OF THE AMERICAN MASTERS
VIDEO OF RICHARD AVEDON, AND AT WHAT PRICE?

THANK YOU, STANLEY WEISBART

Katie -- January 13th, 2009 at 11:57 am

hellllloooooo
i hate photograghy!

Jessica -- January 20th, 2009 at 2:37 pm

i hate photographyyyyy more than anything.

Raina and Jo -- February 11th, 2009 at 6:22 pm

prtty sure i cant find any photos!!… wat the hell ..photography is boring hahaah jhfgcicgb jcv ygf

Abbs -- February 12th, 2009 at 11:14 pm

you people are all crazy if you cant find pictures!! i found HUNDREDS just by searching “Richard Avedon” on google pictures. (crazy people, lol)

Natalie -- February 17th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

another easy way to find photos is richardavedon.com. wow that was difficult.

Addison -- February 27th, 2009 at 10:16 pm

Hello my name is addison and im doing a huge report on photoghraphy dose some one know a way i can get in cantact with a photographer to interview? email me or addison.16@comcast.net or comment back

shanda -- March 18th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

this photographer has unique was to phtograph!!!

Ashanti -- April 9th, 2009 at 1:51 pm

I love photography. <3
It is absolutely the best thing that could ever be created.

=]

jacqueline -- April 15th, 2009 at 9:04 pm

i found this site extremly helpful as well.
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/richard-avedon/

Zac -- April 18th, 2009 at 12:39 am

has anyone ever seen a poster series advertising New York, with celebrities photographed by Richard Avedon? I have two of these posters, one of the celebrities photographed was mikhail baryshnikov, and its from the New York Department of Commerce, and I’m trying to find more information about these posters and this series of posters…

anyone out there?

ABEO -- May 4th, 2009 at 11:01 am

um this website sux!

kthnx!

god blows -- May 5th, 2009 at 7:03 am

this web site did not help at all thnxs alot :/

Jessica Natale -- September 21st, 2009 at 3:06 pm

Anyone know who the author of this artical is?!?!

wild thang :) -- October 12th, 2009 at 1:57 pm

Photography is AMAZING! It helped me find the answers i needed.

Eesh kander vee kinder.

babak hassibian -- October 13th, 2009 at 6:46 pm

I like this photographer.He is great artist.Yeye

Laura Jayne Follin -- November 18th, 2009 at 6:11 pm

After reading about Avedon, it has made me think deeply about photography and life.I love how he was sophisticated throughout his work,REAL LIFE!!capturing real moments. I love his work what an inspiration thank you :)

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