Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''
Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the ...
'', ''
Vogue
Vogue may refer to:
Business
* ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine
** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine
** ''Vogue China'', ...
'' and ''
Elle
''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...
'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and dance. An obituary published in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century".
["Richard Avedon, the Eye of Fashion, Dies at 81"](_blank)
Andy Grundberg, ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', October 1, 2004.
Early life and education
Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish family. His father, Jacob Israel Avedon, was a Russian-born immigrant who advanced from menial work to starting his own successful retail dress business on
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping ...
called Avedon's Fifth Avenue.
[Paula Chin (May 23, 1994)]
At 71, Assailed by Critics, the Prickly Photographer Says Frankly, 'I Don't Give a Damn How I'm Taken.'
''People
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
''. His mother, Anna, from a family that owned a dress-manufacturing business,
encouraged Richard's love of fashion and art. Avedon's interest in photography emerged when, at age 12, he joined a
Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA) Camera Club. He would use his family's
Kodak Box Brownie not only to feed his curiosity about the world but also to retreat from his personal life. His father was a critical and remote disciplinarian, who insisted that physical strength, education, and money prepared one for life.
The photographer's first muse was his younger sister, Louise. During her teen years, she struggled through psychiatric treatment, eventually becoming increasingly withdrawn from reality and diagnosed with schizophrenia.
These early influences of fashion and family would shape Avedon's life and career, often expressed in his desire to capture tragic beauty in photos.
Avedon attended
DeWitt Clinton High School
, motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished
, image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg
, seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG
, seal_size = 124px
, ...
in
Bedford Park, Bronx
Bedford Park is a residential neighborhood in the northwest Bronx, New York City, between the New York Botanical Garden and Lehman College. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: Mosholu Parkway to the north, Webster Av ...
, where from 1937 until 1940 he worked on the school paper, ''The Magpie,'' with
James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; ...
.
[ "He also edited the school magazine at DeWitt Clinton High, on which the black American writer James Baldwin was literary editor."] As a teen, he also won a
Scholastic Art and Writing Award. After graduating from DeWitt Clinton that year, he enrolled at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
to study philosophy and poetry but dropped out after one year. He then started as a photographer for the
Merchant Marines, taking ID shots of the crewmen with the
Rollei
Rollei () was a German manufacturer of optical instruments founded in 1920 by and in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras. Later products included specialty and nostalgic type films for the ...
flex camera his father had given him. From 1944 to 1950, Avedon studied photography with
Alexey Brodovitch
Alexey Vyacheslavovich Brodovitch (also Brodovich; be, Аляксей Брадовіч, russian: Алексе́й Вячесла́вович Бродо́вич; 1898 – April 15, 1971) was a Russian-born American photographer, designer ...
at his Design Laboratory at
The New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSS ...
.
Photography career
In 1944, Avedon began working as an advertising photographer for a department store, but was quickly endorsed by Alexey Brodovitch, who was art director for the fashion magazine ''
Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the ...
''.
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman (June 15, 1917 – February 13, 2012) was an American photographer and painter.
Early life and background
Her parents were Jewish intellectuals who emigrated to the United States from Ukraine (then in Russia) in 1905 and settled ...
also promoted Avedon's career at ''Harper's''. In 1945, his photographs began appearing in ''Junior Bazaar'' and, a year later, in ''Harper's Bazaar''.
In 1946, Avedon had set up his own studio and began providing images for magazines including ''
Vogue
Vogue may refer to:
Business
* ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine
** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine
** ''Vogue China'', ...
'' and ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
''. He became the chief photographer for ''Harper's Bazaar''. From 1950, he also contributed photographs to ''
Look'' and ''
Graphis''. In 1952, he became staff editor/photographer for ''Theatre Arts Magazine''. However, towards the end of the 1950s, he became dissatisfied with daylight photography and open air locations and so turned to studio photography, using strobe lighting.
When
Diana Vreeland left ''Harper's Bazaar'' for ''Vogue'' in 1962, Avedon joined her as a staff photographer. He proceeded to become the lead photographer at ''Vogue'' and photographed most of the covers from 1973 until
Anna Wintour
Dame Anna Wintour (; born 3 November 1949) is a British journalist based in New York City who has served as editor-in-Chief of ''Vogue'' since 1988 and Global Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast since 2020; she is also the artistic directo ...
became editor in chief in late 1988.
Among his fashion advertisement series are the recurring assignments for
Gianni Versace
Giovanni Maria "Gianni" Versace (; 2 December 1946 – 15 July 1997) was an Italian fashion designer, socialite and businessman. He was the founder of Versace, an international luxury-fashion house that produces accessories, fragrances, make-u ...
, beginning with the spring/summer campaign 1980. He also photographed the
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, an ...
Jeans campaign featuring a fifteen-year-old
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and model. She was initially a child model and gained critical acclaim at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film '' Pretty Baby'' (1978). She continued to model into ...
, as well as directing her in the accompanying television commercials. Avedon first worked with Shields in 1974 for a
Colgate toothpaste ad. He shot her for Versace, 12 American ''Vogue'' covers and
Revlon
Revlon, Inc. is an American multinational company dealing in cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care. The headquarters of Revlon was established in New York City on March 1, 1932, where it still remains. Revlon was founded by brother ...
's Most Unforgettable Women campaign.
In the February 9, 1981, issue of ''Newsweek'', Avedon said that "Brooke is a lightning rod. She focuses the inarticulate rage people feel about the decline in contemporary morality and destruction of innocence in the world." On working with Avedon, Shields told ''
Interview
An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...
'' magazine in May 1992, "When Dick walks into the room, a lot of people are intimidated. But when he works, he's so acutely creative, so sensitive. And he doesn't like it if anyone else is around or speaking. There is a mutual vulnerability, and a moment of fusion when he clicks the shutter. You either get it or you don't".
In addition to his continuing fashion work, by the 1960s Avedon was making studio portraits of civil rights workers, politicians, and cultural dissidents of various stripes in an America fissured by discord and violence.
Holland Cotter
Holland Cotter is an art critic with ''The New York Times''. In 2009, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Life and work
Cotter was born in Connecticut and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. He earned his A.B. from Harvard College in 1970, w ...
(July 5, 2012)
Richard Avedon: ‘Murals & Portraits’
''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. He branched out into photographing patients of mental hospitals, the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
in 1963, protesters of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, and later the fall of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the gover ...
.
A personal book called ''Nothing Personal'' with a text by his high school classmate
James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; ...
, appeared in 1964.
It includes photographs documenting the civil rights movement, cultural figures and an extended collection of pictures of people in a mental asylum; together with Baldwin's searing text, it makes a striking commentary on America in 1964.
During this period, Avedon also created two well known sets of portraits of
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
. The first, taken in mid to late 1967, consisted of five psychedelic portraits of the group — four heavily
solarized
Solarized is a color scheme for code editors and terminal emulators created by Ethan Schoonover. The scheme is available in a light and a dark mode. Packages that implement the color scheme have been published for many major applications, with ...
individual color portraits, and a black-and-white group portrait taken with a Rolleiflex camera and a normal
Planar lens. The next year, he photographed the much more restrained portraits that were included with ''
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
'' LP in 1968. Among the many other rock bands photographed by Avedon, in 1973, he shot
Electric Light Orchestra
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop, classical ...
with all the members exposing their bellybuttons for recording ''
On the Third Day''.
Avedon was always interested in how portraiture captures the personality and soul of its subject. As his reputation as a photographer became more well known, he photographed many public figures in his studio with a large-format 8×10
view camera
A view camera is a large-format camera in which the lens forms an inverted image on a ground-glass screen directly at the film plane. The image is viewed and then the glass screen is replaced with the film, and thus the film is exposed to exactly ...
. His subjects include
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...
,
Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson (February 27, 1897April 8, 1993) was an American contralto. She performed a wide range of music, from opera to spirituals. Anderson performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the United ...
,
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
,
Isak Dinesen,
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
, and the
Chicago Seven.
By eliminating the use of soft lights and props, Avedon was able to focus on the inner worlds of his subjects evoking emotions and reactions.
He 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.
Avedon's mural groupings featured emblematic figures: Andy Warhol with the players and stars of
The Factory
The Factory was Andy Warhol's studio in New York City, which had four locations between 1963 and 1987. The Factory became famed for its parties in the 1960s. It was the hip hangout spot for artists, musicians, celebrities and Warhol's superstar ...
; The
Chicago Seven, political radicals charged with conspiracy to incite riot at the
1968 Democratic National Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus maki ...
; the
Beat poet
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
and his extended family; and the Mission Council, a group of military and government officials who governed the United States' participation in the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
.
In 1982, Avedon produced a playfully inventive series of advertisements for fashion label
Christian Dior
Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses ...
, based on the idea of film stills. Featuring director
Andre Gregory, photographer Vincent Vallarino and model/actress
Kelly Le Brock, the color photographs purported to show the wild antics of a fictional "Dior family" living
ménage à trois
A () is a domestic arrangement and committed relationship with three people in polyamorous romantic or sexual relations with each other, and often dwelling together; typically a traditional marriage between a man and woman along with anothe ...
while wearing elegant fashions.
Avedon became the first staff photographer for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' in 1992, where his post-apocalyptic, wild fashion fable “In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort,” featuring model
Nadja Auermann
Nadja Auermann (born 19 March 1971) is a German supermodel and actress. Fashion designer Valentino once commented on her physical resemblance to Marlene Dietrich. A New York Times fashion columnist, Guy Trebay, wrote of her "ice maiden visage a ...
and a skeleton, was published in 1995. Other pictures for the magazine, ranging from the first publication, in 1994, of previously unpublished photos of Marilyn Monroe to a resonant rendering of
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, best known for playing the title character in the film '' Superman'' (1978) and three sequels.
Born in New York City and raised in Princeton, New Jersey ...
in his wheelchair and nude photographs of
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron ( ; ; born 7 August 1975) is a South African and American actress and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actresses, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 20 ...
in 2004, were topics of wide discussion.
''In the American West''
Serious heart inflammations hindered Avedon's health in 1974.
The troubling time inspired him to create a compelling collection from a new perspective. In 1979, he was commissioned by Mitchell A. Wilder (1913–1979), the director of the
Amon Carter Museum
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pub ...
in Fort Worth, Texas, to complete the “Western Project.”
Wilder envisioned the project to portray Avedon's take on the American West. It became a turning point in Avedon's career when he focused on everyday working class subjects such as miners soiled in their work clothes, housewives, farmers and drifters on larger-than-life prints, instead of the more traditional options of focusing upon public figures or the openness and grandeur of the West.
The project lasted five years concluding with an exhibition and a catalogue. It allowed Avedon and his crew to photograph 762 people and expose approximately 17,000 sheets of 8×10
Kodak Tri-X
Tri-X is a black and white photographic film produced by the Eastman Kodak Company. Since 2013 it is distributed by Kodak Alaris which controls the ''Kodak Professional'' product line under which it is grouped. The combination of hand held cam ...
Pan film.
The collection identified a story within his subjects of their innermost self, a connection Avedon admits would not have happened if his new sense of mortality through severe heart conditions and aging hadn't occurred.
Avedon visited and traveled through state fair rodeos, carnivals, coal mines, oil fields, slaughter houses and prisons to find subjects.
In 1994, Avedon revisited his subjects who would later speak about ''In the American West'' aftermath and its direct effects. Billy Mudd, a trucker, spent long periods of time on his own away from his family. He was a depressed, disconnected and lonely man before Avedon offered him the chance to be photographed. When he saw his portrait for the first time, Mudd saw that Avedon revealed something about him that allowed him to recognize the need for change in his life. The portrait transformed Mudd, and led him to quit his job and return to his family.
Helen Whitney's 1996 ''
American Masters
''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...
'' documentary episode, ''Avedon: Darkness and Light,'' depicts an aging Avedon identifying ''In the American West '' as his best body of work.
During the production period Avedon encountered problems with size availability for quality printing paper. While he experimented with
platinum print
Platinum prints, also called ''platinotypes'', are photographic prints made by a monochrome printing process involving platinum.
Platinum tones range from warm black, to reddish brown, to expanded mid-tone grays that are unobtainable in silver ...
ing he eventually settled on Portriga Rapid, a double-weight, fiber-based
gelatin silver
The gelatin silver process is the most commonly used chemical process in black-and-white photography, and is the fundamental chemical process for modern analog color photography. As such, films and printing papers available for analog photography ...
paper manufactured by
Agfa-Gevaert
Agfa-Gevaert N.V. (Agfa) is a Belgian-German multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products, software, and systems. It has three divisions:
* Agfa Graphics, which offers integrated pre ...
. Each print required meticulous work, with an average of thirty to forty manipulations. Two exhibition sets of ''In the American West'' were printed as artist proofs, one set to remain at the Carter after the exhibition there, and the other, property of the artist, to travel to the subsequent six venues. Overall, the printing took nine months, consuming about of paper.
While ''In the American West'' is one of the Avedon's most notable works, it has often been criticized for falsifying the West through
voyeuristic
Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature.
The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". A ...
themes and for exploiting his subjects. Critics question why a photographer from the East who traditionally focuses on models or public figures would go out West to capture the working class members who represent hardship and suffering. They argue that Avedon's intentions are to influence and evoke condescending emotions from the viewer such as pity.
Exhibitions
Avedon had numerous museum exhibitions around the world. His first major retrospective was at the
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...
in 1970.
The
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
(NYC) presented two solo exhibitions during his lifetime, in 1978 and 2002. In 1980, a retrospective was organized by the University Art Museum in Berkeley. Major retrospectives were mounted at the
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...
, New York (1994), and at the
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark, and has an extensive permanent collection of modern and cont ...
, Humlebaek, Denmark (2007; which traveled to Milan, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and San Francisco, through 2009). Showing Avedon's work from his earliest, sun-splashed pictures in 1944 to portraits in 2000 that convey his fashion fatigue, the
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...
in 2009 mounted the largest survey of his fashion work. Also in 2009, the
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...
showed ''Richard Avedon: Portraits of Power,'' bringing together his political portraits for the first time.
Collections
Avedon's work is held in the following permanent collections:
*
The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
, Chicago, IL
*
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, New York
*
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York
*Smithsonian's
National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...
, Washington, D.C.
*
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pu ...
, Ft. Worth, Texas
*
Centre Georges Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
, Paris
*
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
, Jerusalem. Supported by
Leonard A. Lauder and
Larry Gagosian
Lawrence Gilbert "Larry" Gagosian (born April 19, 1945) is an American art dealer who owns the Gagosian Gallery chain of art galleries. Working in concert with collectors including Douglas S. Cramer, Eli Broad, and Keith Barish, he developed a ...
, the Avedon Foundation gave 74 Avedon images to the Israel Museum in 2013.
*
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
Awards
*1989: Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Council of Fashion Designers of America
The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert, and headquartered in Manhattan, is a not-for-profit trade association comprising a membership of over 450 American fashion and accessory d ...
*1989: Honorary graduate degree from the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
*1991: Hasselblad Award - https://www.hasselbladfoundation.org/wp/richard-avedon-2/
*1993: Honorary graduate degree from the
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is se ...
*1993:
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...
's Master of Photography Award
*1994: Honorary graduate degree from the
Parsons School of Design
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
*1994:
Prix Nadar
The Prix Nadar is an annual prize awarded for a photography book edited in France. The prize was created in 1955 by Association Gens d'Images and is awarded by a jury of photojournalists and publishing experts.
The prize is named after Nadar, t ...
in for his book ''Evidence'' (1994)
*2001: Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
*2003: Kitty Carlisle Hart Award,
Arts & Business Council, New York
*2003:
Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
150th Anniversary Medal
*2003:
National Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement
*2003: The
Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
's Special 150th Anniversary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS)
*2017:
International Photography Hall of Fame
The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Louis, Missouri honors those who have made great contributions to the field of photography.
History
In 1977 the first Hall of Fame and Museum opened in Santa Barbara, California and a ...
, St.Louis
Art market
In 2010, a record price of £719,000 was achieved at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
for a unique seven-foot-high print of model
Dovima
Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba (December 11, 1927 – May 3, 1990), known professionally as Dovima, was an American supermodel during the 1950s.
Biography
Dovima was born Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba in Queens, New York to Stanley Juba, a P ...
, posing in a
Christian Dior
Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE, which is now owned by parent company LVMH. His fashion houses ...
evening dress with elephants from the
Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, in 1955. This particular print, the largest of this image, was made in 1978 for Avedon's fashion retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and was bought by Maison Christian Dior.
Personal life
In 1944, Avedon married 19-year-old bank teller Dorcas Marie Nowell, who later became the model and actress
Doe Avedon
Doe Avedon (born Dorcas Marie Nowell; April 7, 1925 – December 18, 2011) was an American model and actress.
Early life
Doe Avedon was born Dorcas Marie Nowell in Old Westbury, New York, Long Island on April 7, 1925. Her mother died when s ...
; they did not have children and divorced in 1949. The couple summered at the gay village of Cherry Grove, Fire Island, and Avedon's bisexuality has been attested to by colleagues and family. He was reportedly devastated when Nowell left him.
In 1951, he married Evelyn Franklin; she died on March 13, 2004. Their marriage produced one son, John Avedon, who has written extensively about
Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
.
[Deborah Netburn (April 24, 2000)]
Avedon Gets $9 Million From East End Couple For His Montauk Spread
'' New York Observer''.
In 1970, Avedon purchased a former carriage house on the
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
of Manhattan that would serve as both his studio and apartment. In the late 1970s, he purchased a four-bedroom house on a estate in
Montauk, New York
Montauk ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 4,318.
The ...
, between the Atlantic Ocean and a nature preserve; he sold it for almost $9 million in 2000.
According to Norma Stevens, Avedon's longtime studio director, Avedon confided in her about his homosexual relationships, including a decade-long affair with director
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...
.
Death
On October 1, 2004, Avedon died in a
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
, hospital of complications from a
cerebral hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
. He was in San Antonio shooting an assignment for ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. At the time of his death, he was also working on a new project titled ''Democracy'' to focus on the run-up to the
2004 U.S. presidential election.
Legacy
The Richard Avedon Foundation is a private operating foundation, structured by Avedon during his lifetime. It began its work shortly after his death in 2004. Based in New York, the foundation is the repository for Avedon's photographs, negatives, publications, papers, and archival materials.
[Richard Avedon](_blank)
Gagosian Gallery
Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are 16 gallery spaces: five in New York City; three in London; two in P ...
, New York. In 2006, Avedon's personal collection was shown at the
Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, and at the
Fraenkel Gallery
Fraenkel Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in San Francisco founded by Jeffrey Fraenkel in 1979. Frish Brandt, president of the gallery, joined in 1985.
Fraenkel Gallery has presented more than 350 exhibitions, with a focus on photography and ...
, San Francisco, and later sold to benefit the Avedon Foundation. The collection included photographs by
Martin Munkacsi Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Austr ...
,
Edward Steichen
Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography.
Steichen was credited with tr ...
and
Man Ray
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...
, among others. A slender volume, ''Eye of the Beholder: Photographs From the Collection of Richard Avedon'' (Fraenkel Gallery), assembles the majority of the collection in a boxed set of five booklets: “
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus (; née Nemerov; March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971
" The New York ...
,” “
Peter Hujar
Peter Hujar (October 11, 1934 – November 26, 1987) was an American photographer best known for his black and white portraits. He has been recognized posthumously as a major American photographer of the late-twentieth century. Yet Hujar's work r ...
”, “
Irving Penn
Irving Penn (June 16, 1917October 7, 2009) was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn's career included work at ''Vogue'' magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Is ...
”, “The Countess de Castiglione” and “Etcetera,” which includes 19th- and 20th-century photographers.
In popular culture
Hollywood presented a fictional account of Avedon's early career in the 1957 musical ''
Funny Face
''Funny Face'' is a 1957 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and written by Leonard Gershe, containing assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. Although having the same title as the 1927 Broadway musical ''Funny ...
'', starring
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history.
Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
as the fashion photographer "Dick Avery." Avedon supplied some of the still photographs used in the production, including its most noted single image: an intentionally overexposed close-up of
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
's face in which only her noted features – her eyes, her eyebrows, and her mouth – are visible.
Hepburn was Avedon's muse in the 1950s and 1960s, and he went so far as to say: "I am, and forever will be, devastated by the gift of Audrey Hepburn before my camera. I cannot lift her to greater heights. She is already there. I can only record. I cannot interpret her. There is no going further than who she is. She has achieved in herself her ultimate portrait."
The 2005 film ''
Capote'' contains a recreation of Avedon photographing convicted murderers
Perry Edward Smith and
Richard Hickock
Richard Eugene Hickock (June 6, 1931 – April 14, 1965) was one of two ex-convicts convicted of murdering four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction n ...
in April 1960. Avedon is portrayed by the film's cinematographer, Adam Kimmel.
Noted photographs
*''
Marella Agnelli
Marella Agnelli (; born Donna Marella Caracciolo dei Principi di Castagneto ; 4 May 1927 – 23 February 2019)''Almanach de Gotha''. Gotha: Justus Perthes. 1942. pp. 398–399. was an Italian noblewoman, art collector, socialite, style icon an ...
, Italian socialite'', 1953
*'', Brazilian socialite (Vogue's 10 best dressed)'', 1970
*''
Dovima
Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba (December 11, 1927 – May 3, 1990), known professionally as Dovima, was an American supermodel during the 1950s.
Biography
Dovima was born Dorothy Virginia Margaret Juba in Queens, New York to Stanley Juba, a P ...
with Elephants'', 1955
*''
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
, actress'', 1957
*''Homage to Munkacsi'', Carmen, coat by Cardin, Paris, 1957
*''
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a former French actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the ...
, actress'', 1959
*''
Jacqueline de Ribes'', 1961
*''
John F Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
'', 1960
*''
Christina Bellin'', model, 1962
*''
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor),'' athlete 1963
*''
Dwight David Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
, President of the United States'', 1964
*''
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
'', 1967
*''The
Chicago Seven:
Lee Weiner
Lee Weiner (born ) is an author and member of the Chicago Seven who was charged with "conspiring to use interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot" and "teaching demonstrators how to construct incendiary devices that would be used in civil d ...
,
John Froines
John Radford Froines (; June 13, 1939 – July 13, 2022) was an American chemist and anti-war activist, noted as a member of the Chicago Seven, a group charged with involvement with the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chica ...
,
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponen ...
,
Rennie Davis
Rennard Cordon Davis (May 23, 1940 – February 2, 2021) was an American anti-war activist who gained prominence in the 1960s. He was one of the Chicago Seven defendants charged for anti-war demonstrations and large-scale protests at the 1968 D ...
,
Jerry Rubin
Jerry Clyde Rubin (July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994) was an American social activist, anti-war leader, and counterculture icon during the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, he became a successful businessman. He is known for being one of the ...
,
Tom Hayden
Thomas Emmet Hayden (December 11, 1939October 23, 2016) was an American social and political activist, author, and politician. Hayden was best known for his role as an anti-war, civil rights, and intellectual activist in the 1960s, authoring th ...
,
Dave Dellinger'', 1969
*''
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
and Members of the Factory'', New York, 1969
*''
Sly Stone
Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the ...
(cover of the album Fresh (Sly and the Family Stone album), Fresh)'', 1973
*''Asha Puthli'', (She Loves to Hear the Music Album back cover), 1974
*''Muddy Waters'', cover of ''Hard Again'', 1977
*''Ronald Fischer, beekeeper'', 1981
*''Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent'', 1981
[Welsh, James Michael; Gene D. Phillips; Rodney Hill The Francis Ford Copolla Encyclopedia Scarecrow Press Lanham, Maryland 2010, p. 154.]
*''Pile of beautiful people, Versace campaign, 1982
*''Whitney Houston (cover of Whitney (album), Whitney)'', 1987
*''Hikaru Utada (cover of Addicted to You (Hikaru Utada song), Addicted to You)'',1999
*''Tom Ford'', 2002
Books
*''Observations (book), Observations.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1959. Photographs by Avedon, commentary by Truman Capote. Portraits of noted people.
*''Nothing Personal.'' New York: Atheneum Books, Atheneum: 1964. A collaborative book with
James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; ...
.
*''Alice in Wonderland: The Forming of a Company and the Making of a Play.'' Merlin: 1973. By Avedon and Doon Arbus. .
*''Portraits.'' Noonday: 1976. Introduction by Harold Rosenberg. .
*''Portraits 1947–1977.'' Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1978. .
*''In the American West.''
**''In the American West, Photographs by Richard Avedon.'' New York: Abrams Books, Abrams, 1985. With an introduction by Laura Wilson (photographer), Laura Wilson. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at
Amon Carter Museum
Amon may refer to:
Mythology
* Amun, an Ancient Egyptian deity, also known as Amon and Amon-Ra
* Aamon, a Goetic demon
People Momonym
* Amon of Judah ( 664– 640 BC), king of Judah
Given name
* Amon G. Carter (1879–1955), American pub ...
, Fort Worth, TX.
**''In the American West, 1979–1984.'' New York: Abrams, 1985. .
**''In the American West: 20th Anniversary Edition.'' New York: Abrams, 2005. .
*''An Autobiography.'' 1993. Photographs arranged to tell Avedon's life story.
*''Evidence.'' 1994. Essays and text about Avedon with photographs by Avedon.
*''The Sixties.'' 1999. By Avedon and Doon Arbus. Photographs of noted people.
*''Made in France'', 2001. A retrospective of Avedon's fashion portraiture from the 1950s.
*''Richard Avedon Portraits 2002. Celebrities and subjects from ''In The American West''. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
*''Woman in the Mirror.'' 2005. With an essay by Anne Hollander.
*''Performance.'' 2008. With an essay by John Lahr.
*''Portraits of Power.'' 2008. Edited by Paul Roth. With an essay by Renata Adler. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...
in Washington, D.C.
See also
*Michael Avedon
References
External links
Richard Avedon ca 1948.* – official site
Richard Avedonat Biography.com
*
*
Richard Avedon: Portrait Series of Jacob Israel Avedonfrom the Collection of The Jewish Museum (New York)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avedon, Richard
1923 births
2004 deaths
20th-century American photographers
21st-century American photographers
AIGA medalists
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American portrait photographers
American sailors
Bisexual artists
Bisexual men
Jewish American artists
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Columbia University alumni
Commercial photographers
DeWitt Clinton High School alumni
Fashion photographers
LGBT Jews
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
LGBT photographers from the United States
LGBT people from New York (state)
Photographers from New York City
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
20th-century LGBT people