Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon (1923 - 2004) began his career as a fashion photographer for Harper's. At a very young age he went to Paris and set the fashion world on fire with his unique style, making his models move, putting them in motion, and making fashion photography an art. His mentors at Harper's demanded perfection, and this was just the atmosphere he needed to become not just a good, but a great photographer. Eventually Avedon seemed to reach burnout at Harper's, beginning to criticize the industry that paid him. He left Harper's in the 1960s and went to work for Vogue.

The 1960s, with the weird and avante gard fashion of the time, re-inspired Avedon, and his fashion and personal photography reached new heights. His 1966 photograph of a nude woman entwined with a snake (a huge boa) became a fabulous poster and sold 2 million copies. Avedon left Vogue in 1988 and embarked on a new career as a photographer of the rich and famous. He is well known as a photographer of the stars, taking a legendary photograph of Marlyn Monroe.

Avedon's style was to take photographs of his subjects against a plain white background, and would talk to his subjects, and use psychology, to uncover the real person beneath the facade. His photographs of Dorothy Parker and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were highly controversial because of this technique. His photographs of his father, at the end of his life, were very hard to look at, and highly criticized, and even Avedon admits that it might have been an act of revenge on his part to take them.

Later in his career, Avedon spent a number of years photographing people in the American West - drifters, loners, working people - accomplishing some of his greatest work.

Avedon was truly a great photographer, turning fashion photography into art for the first time. He is an inspiration for all photographers.