After a meteoric rise in the late 1940s as a young fashion photographer at Harpers Bazaar and in the wake of Vogue and other magazines, the energetic Avedon slipped into mid-century New York high society with the glamorous authority and prowess of a movie star and changed the way people think about style, celebrities, women’s fashion and photography itself. But around 1969, after literally dominating the covers and glossy pages of major fashion magazines for nearly two decades, Avedon turned sharply and increasingly to
Avedon worked for 20 years as a staff photographer at Harpers Bazaar from 1945 to 1965 ; at the age of twenty-two he began working as a freelance photographer mainly at Harpers Bazaar ; by 1946 he opened his own studio and started providing images for magazines including Vogue and Life [blurry].
In the same year, two of Avedon’s photographs were featured in the Harpers Bazaars junior bazaar, marking the beginning of her long and highly successful career in fashion photography. Avedon studied street photography and the invention of the 35mm camera in his design lab at the New School for Social Research from 1944 to 1950. In 1944 Avedon started working as an advertising photographer in a department store but was quickly approved by Alexei Brodovich, art director of the Harpers Bazaars.
Avedon and Brodovitch became close friends and one year later Avedon was hired as the staff photographer for the magazine. After several years of photographing everyday life in New York City, Avedon was commissioned to design spring and fall fashion collections in Paris, with a focus on motion capture for fashion, theater and dance.
Richard Avedon was born in New York and his father, Jacob Israel Avedon, was a Russian immigrant who went from a humble job to starting his own successful retail business on Fifth Avenue called Avedons Fifth Avenue. Since his father owned a women’s clothing store on Fifth Avenue, he was often in attendance when representatives from prestigious fashion magazines such as Harpers Bazaar, Vanity Fair and Vogue popped into the gallery every month to discuss fashion.
His interest in photography emerged at an early age and when he was twelve he joined the YMHA photo club (Young Jewish Association) and left the merchant marine to work as a professional photographer for two years, first creating fashion looks and training with Art Director Alexei Brodovich at the Design Lab at the New School for Social Research.
American photographer Richard Avedon was known for his work in the fashion world and minimalist portraits. He first worked as a photographer in the merchant marine, taking photographs for documents, and then filming for Harpers Bazaar and Vogue requiring his models to convey emotion and movement, a departure from the norm in still photography.
Renowned American portrait painter Richard Avedon (born May 15, 1923, New York, NY, USA – died October 1, 2004 – San Antonio, TX) is one of the leading American portrait photographers of the mid-20th century best known for his portraits and fashion photography.
Richard Avedon is considered by many as the leading portrait photographer of the late twentieth century. He is one of the few to have bridged the often shared divide as a fashion and visual arts photographer, blurting the lines between the two, and critics ridiculed or ridiculed his generosity, his four-story home, fictional museum exhibitions and work in commercial advertisements.
After winning a citywide high school poetry competition, Avedon was named in his final year at DeViit Clinton High School a poet-diplomate of New York High School. Avedon also inspired the 1957 Funny Face film, in which the protagonist is based on his own life. Richard Avedon was passionate about photography and dedicated his life to capturing the reality of his objects.
They also have an impromptu appearance and no two are alike in posture or handling. Here Avedon is not obliged to make his characters graceful, and some portraits are almost caricatures – photographic impressions that explore any psychological weakness and theatrical affectiveness of the characters.
Curiously, Avedon has never been very successful in his attempts to photograph heroic masculinity like Montgomery Clift or Marlon Brando, since the late 1940s, when Avedons blurred his heads in black and white portraits capturing the pure dynamism of youth, his photos have changed to reflect the style, energy and dynamism of the moment.
In addition to work in the fashion industry, Avedon was a master of portraiture and also worked in political photography. From the beginning of his career, Avedon has made official portraits for publications in theater arts, life, look, Harper’s Bazaar and many others and has also worked as visual consultant on Funny Face, which is famous for his extensive portraits of the American Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and his famous series of photographs of his father Jacob Israel Avedon.
When his senior year at DeWitt Clinton HS in the Bronx failed Avedon joined the merchant navy where he was fortunate enough to take identification photos of each newcomer, but also provided photojournalism for two of the organization’s magazines. Avedon still felt like a stranger, not only because he was probably the only sailor to rummage through the Harpers Bazaar and not movie stars with cheesecake on his bunk.
