Richard Avedon (1923 - 2004) is a fashion photographer and then an American portraitist.
He did a job that ranged from fashionable photo reporting of Danang orphans during the Vietnam War to the portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren. He will remain known for his countless black and white portraits. Avedon knew how to make photographic portrait a true art after having initially met success with fashion photography.
Marylin Moneroe by R. Avedon
His Life
Avedon was born in New York to a Jewish family of Russian descent. Her father is a trader in clothing. He offered him his first camera at the age of 10 with which he realized the portrait of Sergei Rachmaninov, the neighbor of his grandparents. Her mother assures her artistic awakening. After briefly attending Columbia University, he joined the American armed forces in 1942 during the Second World War. He served as a second-class photographer in the United States Navy (United States Merchant Marine) and began his photography career by taking credentials with the Rolleiflex that his father had offered him.
Beatles by R. Avedon
In 1944 he was employed as a publicity photographer for a department store but soon discovered by Alexey Brodovitch, artistic director of Harper's Bazaar fashion magazine and director of a design school, the New School for Social Research. In 1946, Avedon created his own studio and provided photographs for magazines like Vogue and Life. He soon became the director of photography for Harper's Bazaar. In 1966, Avedon, debauched by Alexander Liberman shortly after Diana Vreeland, left his work at Harper's Bazaar and joined Vogue; He will collaborate with the magazine for 25 years2.
Avedon, continues his work as a fashion photographer, but begins to work more personal: he photographs patients interned in psychiatric hospitals, the civil rights struggle in the United States or protesters against the war in Vietnam.
The portraitist
In August 1967, Avedon made two famous series of portraits of the Beatles. The first became one of the group's first major posters: four highly solarized individual color portraits (solos by Gideon Lewin, retouched by Bob Bishop) and a set of four black and white portraits taken with a Rolleiflex and A Planar lens. These photographs will be used as record covers 1 published in 2000 and Love Songs published in 1977.
Avedon has always been interested in the way in which the photographic portrait reflects the personality and soul of his subject. His growing reputation as a photographer brought many famous faces to a studio and photographed them in large 8 × 10 format. His portraits are easily distinguished by their minimalist style where the person looks directly at the lens, posing face to face, on a totally white background.
Cary Grand by R. Avedon
In 1974, he exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) portraits of his father devoured by cancer.
In 1976, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, Rolling Stone published 73 portraits of politicians made by Avedon during the election campaign.
H. Kissinger & R. Reagan by R. Avedon
The New Yorker
Avedon became the first and only New Yorker photographer in 1992, breaking a long taboo at the request of Tina Brown. He won numerous awards for his work, including the International Center of Photography in 1993, the 1994 Nadar Prize for his book Evidence, and the Royal Photographic Society's 150th anniversary medal in 2003.
Among his most famous photographs in France, are those of Yannick Noah and Isabelle Adjani in 1988 for the French magazine L'Egoïste. He had realized the 1995 and 1997 edition of the prestigious Pirelli calendar.
Isabelle Adjani by R. Avedon
On September 25, 2004, Avedon suffered a brain hemorrhage in San Antonio, Texas while working on an order from the New Yorker. He died on October 1 in San Antonio. At the time of his death, Avedon is working on a project called On Democracy that deals with the preparations for the 2004 US presidential election.
R. Avedon by R. Avedon
