Photography
Richard Avedon, photographer artist
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“All photographs are accurate, none of them is the truth”
Throughout his career, Avedon called himself an artist. He influenced his subject to achieve what he was trying to express, creating atmosphere, mimicking movements, seeking to inspire and create a shared motivation to produce an inspiring image. He claimed that photography was fiction: it was the photographer's vision that he shared with the viewer. A photograph represents the death of a moment. The photographer is the new writer.
Richard Avedon (1923–2004) was a photographer known for his fashion photography and portraiture. It has been said that his fashion photography and portraiture helped define America's cultural image and standards of beauty during the latter half of the 20th century. For Avedon, fashion was his livelihood, and portraiture his true passion. He often described the importance of establishing a relationship with his subject, which becomes a mirror of his own personality that he has captured. The image he uses to describe the relationship between photographer and subject is that of a sculptor molding his subject.
Youthful influence
Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish immigrant family. His father, Jacob Israel Avedon, was a Russian immigrant who successfully launched a successful retail dress business on Fifth Avenue, called "Avedon's Fifth Avenue." His mother came from a family that owned a dress factory, which sparked his interest in fashion from a young age. His father, Jacob, was authoritarian and a disciplinarian, emphasizing physical strength, education, and money. He had a contentious relationship with his son.
Richard developed an early interest in photography, and his sister Louise was his primary muse. He developed a close relationship with his sister to compensate for the constant confrontation between him and his father. During her teenage years, Louise struggled to maintain her mental health as she became increasingly detached from reality. This early experience influenced his vision of fashion and shaped his life and career. He always sought to capture tragic beauty in his photographs.
Youth and Parisian influence
In 1944, Avedon began working as a commercial photographer for a department store, but soon Alexey Brodovitch, editor of Harper's Bazaar magazine, recognized his potential.
In 1946, he opened his own studio. His photographs began appearing in Vogue and Life. In the early 1950s, he spent several years in Europe. He sought inspiration and succeeded in establishing himself with a dynamic and new vision of fashion photography.
Brodovitch's influence in Paris allowed him to work for several years for Harper's Bazaar in
Europe. He moved to Paris and contributed to the production of fashion photographs that changed the perception of fashion images. Avedon differentiated himself from the fashion photography style of his time: he demanded emotion from his models; he made them move, smile, and laugh. He captured outdoor scenes in the context of everyday life. This revolutionary approach captured the attention of major magazines.
Back in New York, he became chief photographer for Harper's Bazaar magazine.
In 1962, he became a photographer for Vogue, earning over $1 million a year. He produced the majority of the magazine's covers until 1973.
Striking fashion photos
In addition to his photographic work for the fashion industry, and beginning in 1960, Avedon accumulated studio portraits of civil rights activists, politicians, artists, political dissidents, psychiatric hospital patients, anti-Vietnam War protesters, and the event of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Avedon's portraits are said to reveal more than they flatter. A portraitist works much like an interviewer: under time constraints, they must both deliver a meaningful performance of the subject.
Avedon once said, “All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” Avedon understands that photography is a collaborative art between the photographer and his subject, a two-way exchange. He enjoys using storytelling to evoke reactions from his subjects and play with their emotions, allowing him to capture the expressions he wants to show.
Starting in the 1950s, models began to gravitate toward the “girl next door” look, in contrast to the unattainable beauty of previous generations of models. Dovima and the Elephants distills this myth by juxtaposing the dramatic and powerful elephants against her great beauty and the delicacy of her dress.
It's a perfect contrast with dramatic content. This photo is said to have revolutionized the world of fashion.
Dovima with the elephants represents a turning point in fashion culture: the last incarnation of an old style, the flight of fashion towards new paths, leaving behind artificiality and rigidity. The photo offers many contrasts: age, strength, refinement.
Avedon demonstrated his ability to work under pressure and deliver impeccable quality throughout his career, in demanding conditions and with very tight deadlines.
Duke and Duchess of Winsor
The best example of Avadon influencing his subjects is the portrait he produced with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Here is a photo of the couple taken in the Bahamas by the Vancouver Sun in 1940 (the photojournalist is not identified).
After abdicating the English throne to marry the woman he loved, Edward VIII was given the title Duke of Windsor, and his new wife, Wallis Simpson, became the Duchess of Windsor upon their marriage in the 1930s. Wallis is a socialite with two ex-husbands. In addition to the political uproar their romance caused in Britain during World War II, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were also suspected by many of being Nazi sympathizers.
Avedon knew his subjects were regulars at photo shoots and expected a typical, standard session like any other in the past. Avedon knew the couple loved dogs. As they sat facing the camera, he told them that on the way to meet them, his taxi had struck and killed a dog. Avedon once again demonstrates his willingness to manipulate his subjects for the purposes of his creation.
Project “In the American West” (1980 - 1985)
This project was a turning point in Avedon's career. He decided to undertake a major tour of the American West in search of subjects representing the working class in their work context, including miners, housewives, farmers, and the homeless. He wanted to break free from the mold of documenting famous people and the deceptive attitude of the celebrity industry. The project lasted five years and was completed in 1985 with the production of an exhibition and a catalog of more than 762 subjects and approximately 17,000 8 x 10 Kodak Tri-X Pan photographs.
The project was commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum. Avedon visited rodeos, fairs, carnivals, coal mines, and even prisons. For a project of this scale and duration, this is Avedon's magnum opus.
Richard Avedon created a series of portraits that contrasted with the myth of the vast landscapes of the West. His images of miners and migrant workers demonstrate that the West was also a place where people worked hard. These images reveal the domination, exploitation, and waste of human life in the name of wealth production, but they also reveal something found in these wide open spaces: dignity.
The choice to use a white background for the project was an important decision for Avedon. Not only is the style consistent from one subject to the next, but this creative vision of simplicity allows him to capture the details of his subjects—their gestures, facial expressions, clothing, and physical features—that the white background brings out.
Avedon Quotes That Start a Discussion
“I hate cameras. They interfere, they're always in the way. I wish: if I could just work with my eyes alone.”
“I believe that you've got to love your work so much that it is all you want to do.”
“I think all art is about control – the encounter between control and the uncontrollable.”
“Anything is an art if you do it at the level of an art.”
“There is no such thing as inaccuracy in a photograph. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.”
References for the work of Richard Avedon
The Guardian, 2017, In the American West
Some of the most powerful portraits that Richard Avedon ever shot were those commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum of Art, in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1979. A selection of images from the series In the American West, showing the people he photographed in Texas, will be on show at the museum until July 2.
Richard Avedon's ' In the American West ' By The ASX Team on January 24, 2011
Richard Avedon :: Dovima with Elephants YouTube
5 Lessons Richard Avedon Has Taught Me About Street Photography , Eric Kim
Richard Avedon, 2013, Darkness and Light , YouTube video
A retrospective of Avedon's life and work, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, American Masters Series, Richard Avedon Darkness and Light
09:00 Influence of Martin Munkácsi , Alexey Brodovitch, art director of Harper's Bazaar, Carmel Snow, editor-in-chief and Diana Vreeland, fashion editor
11:00 Selection of images influenced by Carmel Snow, photographs of Katharine Hepburn
12:30 Louise Avedon