THE GREAT Richard Avedon’s (1923-2004) career spanned over sixty years, and even in his final days he was shooting for The New Yorker. This tireless talent has left a legacy that draws a respectful smile of delight in those that reference his image-creation. His work conjures up awe in people as to how deep a two-dimensional visual can truly be. Here the D1 team explores how the life and works of Richard Avedon have set the bar for fashion imagery, and shattered the glass between the definitions of ‘high-art’ and ‘photography’.

The thousands of photographs Richard Avendon lensed are instilled with his curiosity about human narratives. Alongside the collectible tomes recounting his vast body of work, there have been multiple high-profile museum retrospectives celebrating his work, beginning with a debut at the Smithsonian Institution in 1962. Avedon touched many genres: from war reportage (in 1942 he served in WW2 as the Photographer’s Mate Second Class in the U.S. Merchant Marine) to portraits of royals and the A-list; photo documentaries of New York soirées and sobering coverage of people in mental institutions; fashion editorials, and everlasting commercial campaigns for the likes of Versace and Calvin Klein. You could cherry-pick any number of his photographs and understand why he is revered as one-of-one. 

Avedon shared his frustration that the camera would ‘get in the way’ of his art; he professed to wishing that he could capture the image with his eyes alone. This sentiment is testament to the magic of an unfolding moment and realizing that as soon as the shutter button is pressed, the photograph captured is just a timestamp of an experience, just one moment in the complexity of a person’s expression. "I am always stimulated by people, almost never by ideas," Avedon said, and it's this fascination with humanity that creates the magic behind so many of his portraits. While shooting ads formed his main source of income in his early career, Avedon sustained an impressive determination to consistently capture portraits of ‘real people’. 

He took on his first role at age 21 for Harper’s Bazaar as a staff photographer; having studied with Alexey Brodovitch, a reputed art director and Bazaar alumnus, at the New School. This marked the beginning of his fashion CV working with magazine titles, and with the mentorship of Brodovitch, he soon became the go-to photographer for shoots across the pages of Harper’s, Vogue, Theatre Arts, Life, Look, The New Yorker, and Égoïste. 

(Brodovitch deserves his own ode! Here is a brief summary: Alexey Brodovitch was a relentless perfectionist and Art Director of Harper’s Bazaar US for over twenty-four years, where he redefined cool. He is considered by many to have been the most influential figure in his field. In his fascinating early career he won one first prize in a Paris-based poster competition, beating none other than Picasso into second place. When a talent like Richard Avedon came to be trained and mentored by a master like Brodovitch, dazzling cultural results were destined to follow. More on this man in next month’s installment of D1 content.)