We would like to remind about the very famous Richard Avedon…
Avedon has won many awards for his photography, including the International Center of Photography Master of Photography Award in 1993, the Prix Nadar in 1994 for his photobook Evidence, and the Royal Photographic Society 150th Anniversary Medal in 2003.
See his biography on Wikipedia.
See the official site of The Richard Avedon Foundation.
Italy #8, Sicily, 1947.
Brandenburg Gate #1, Berlin, Germany, New Year’s eve 1989.
In 1944, he began working as an advertising photographer for a department store, but was quickly discovered by the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar. In 1946, Avedon had set up his own studio and began providing images for magazines including Vogue and Life. He soon became the chief photographer for Harper’s Bazaar. Avedon did not conform to the standard technique of taking fashion photographs, where models stood emotionless and seemingly indifferent to the camera. Instead, Avedon showed models full of emotion, smiling, laughing, and, many times, in action. In 1966, Avedon left Harper’s Bazaar to work as a staff photographer for Vogue magazine. He proceeded to become the lead photographer of Vogue.
George Wallace, former Governor of Alabama, with his valet, Jimmy Dallas, Montgomery, Alabama, July 31, 1993.
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr with his father and son, Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 1963.
In addition to his continuing fashion work, Avedon began to branch out and photographed patients of mental hospitals, protesters of the Vietnam War, and later the fall of the Berlin Wall. Avedon was always interested in how portraiture captures the personality and soul of its subject. As his reputation as a photographer became widely known, he brought in many famous faces to his studio and photographed them with a large-format 8×10 view camera. His portraits are easily distinguished by their minimalist style, where the person is looking squarely in the camera, posed in front of a sheer white background. Avedon would at times evoke reactions from his portrait subjects by guiding them into uncomfortable areas of discussion or asking them psychologically probing questions. Through these means he would produce images revealing aspects of his subject’s character and personality that were not typically captured by others.
Marlon Brando, New York, April 19, 1951.
Maurizio Cattelan, artist, New York, July 8, 2004.
He is also distinguished by his large prints, sometimes measuring over three feet in height. His large-format portrait work of drifters, miners, cowboys and others from the western United States became a best-selling book and traveling exhibit entitled In the American West. Avedon was drawn to working people such as miners and oil field workers in their soiled work clothes, unemployed drifters, and teenagers growing up in the West circa 1979-84. When first published and exhibited, In the American West was criticized for showing what some considered to be a disparaging view of America.
Jean Shrimpton, evening dress by Cardin, Paris Studio, January 1970.
Passante du Siècle Portfolio: the 1990s, Stephanie Seymour, in Chanel, Paris, April 1995.