Photographer Richard Avedon. Biography and photo of Richard Avedon

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Richard Avedon is a photographer who helped establish photography as a modern art form while working with celebrities, fashion icons and ordinary Americans throughout his long and prolific career. His style is iconic and exemplary. While the portraits of his contemporaries focused on individual moments and showed the formal side of human nature, his harsh lighting and minimalist white background drew the viewer's attention not only to beauty, but also to the personality and intimate, genuine emotions of the models. One of the most famous photographers of the 20th century - that's what Richard Avedon was.

Biography of the master: childhood

The boy was born on May 15, 1923 to a Jewish family in New York. His mother was from a dress-making family and his father owned a clothing store. Therefore, Richard's life from childhood was connected with the world of fashion and beauty. The boy loved photographing clothes in his father's store and even joined the photography club inage 12 years old. For a long time he was inspired by the beauty of his younger sister Louise. Unfortunately, she suffered from mental illness and did not live long, so Richard developed a reverent attitude towards beauty, which speaks for itself, but is doomed to fade.

Youth and early career

After high school, Avedon entered Columbia University, where he studied philosophy and poetry. However, the young man dropped out of training for the sake of serving in the Navy during 1942-1944. After that, he studied photography for a year under Harper's Bazaar art director Alexei Brodovich. A strong friendship arose between the teacher and the student, and soon Avedon was accepted into the magazine's team. For 10 years he has been shooting for gloss and has established himself as one of the most talented young photographers. But the real fame was yet to come.

In 1944, Avedon married model Dorcas Novell, after 6 years of marriage they broke up. In 1951, he again tied the knot with Evelyn Franklin. They had a son, John, but their union also ended in divorce.

Legendary breakthrough

Photographs of Dovima van Clieff with elephants were the first widely known works of the master. Pictures of the most famous model of the time in a chic Dior outfit, with real elephants in the circus are unexpected and at the same time aesthetically flawless.

Here are some more interesting works that Richard Avedon did during this period:

The photo of actress Marilyn Monroe is unique in its kind. Richard recalled how on a spring evening in 1957year, the diva came to his studio and for several hours posed, danced, flirted. But when the work was completed, for a moment the actress "left" the image. The photographer managed to capture this rare moment when she was herself, defenseless and open

Another interesting photo taken at the same time is a portrait of Marilyn Monroe and her husband, handsome screenwriter Arthur Miller. Here, the actress glows with happiness next to her loved one, with whom she has been together for 2 years. A few years later they will part, but the moment filled with joy and optimism remained with us forever thanks to the skill of the photographer

This portrait of Elizabeth Taylor with a fancy feather hairdo was taken on July 1, 1964. Perfect balance, sharp contrast - the minimalist style that Richard Avedon was famous for perfectly reflected the aesthetics of the 60s. Elizabeth was at that time the highest paid actress in Hollywood, and the photographer was not afraid to give her portrait a touch of challenge and majesty

Switch to competitors

In 1966, after a 2-year creative crisis, Avedon began working for Harper's Bazaar's main rival, Vogue magazine. Here he was also given complete freedom of creativity. Their collaboration lasted until 1990 and was marked by no less interesting work. Provocative, surreal images confirmed that Richard Avedon is a true innovator who producedrevolutionize the art of fashion photography.

Work outside the beauty industry

But the already recognized master was not limited to pictures of celebrities and style icons. His portfolio also includes portraits of politicians (U. S. President D. D. Eisenhower, Dr. Martin Luther King, and others), soldiers who fought in the Vietnam War, and its victims.

Later, in 1979, Richard Avedon began work on a massive project called In the American West, which lasted 6 years. Within it, he took photographs of ordinary Americans: miners, drivers, cowboys, the unemployed, teenagers - everyone who caught his attention.

The project was met with criticism, accused of making US citizens look bad. But over time, the photobook became a bestseller and one of the important milestones in the art of portrait photography of the twentieth century.

Recent years

In 1992, Avedon joined The New Yorker. He expressed a desire to photograph not only celebrities, but also people who have achieved something important. His last project, which was destined to remain unfinished, was called Democracy and consisted of portraits not only of politicians, but also of ordinary citizens who took an active part in political and social activities.

Richard Avadon died October 1, 2004 while on duty in San Antonio, Texas. Until recently, he remained true to the art of photography.