Richard Avedon
Fashion photography and modern portraiture were irrevocably changed by Richard Avedon. Born in New York City in 1923, Avedon first encountered photography when he joined the U.S. Merchant Marines, taking identification pictures of fellow crew members. He worked for a department store and then from 1944-50 studied with Alexey Brodovitch at the Design Laboratory at the New School for Social Research. Brodovitch was the art director for Harper’s Bazaar and he brought in Avedon as a staff photographer through 1965. Avedon photographed models in action, sometimes constructing a narrative that was a major departure from simply portraying immobile models and their clothes. The 1957 musical Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn was based on Avedon’s early career. Avedon switched to Vogue magazine and started to expand his attention to photographing mental patients, the civil rights movement and celebrity portraits. His signature technique of photographing subjects in large-format against a simple background was revealing, stark, and often remorseless. Avedon was commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas to develop what became a best-selling book and traveling exhibit In the American West that portrayed ordinary people who were identified by their profession – coal miner, cowhand, housewife. Avedon became the staff photographer for the New Yorker magazine in 1992 until his death. Important exhibits include the 1994 retrospective Richard Avedon: Evidence at the Whitney Museum of American Art” and the 2002 exhibit Richard Avedon: Portraits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Richard Avedon died on September 25, 2004 in San Antonio, Texas while on assignment.
