1. American Portrait and Fashion Photographer
Richard Avedon
American Portrait and Fashion Photographer

2. bio He was born May 15, 1923 in New York City, New York.
He died October 1, in San Antonio, Texas.
He grew up in New york City.

3. Personal life He was born into a Jewish family.
His mother, Anna, owned a dress-manufacturing business which spurred on his love of fashion and art.
He became interested in photography when he turned 12 and joined the Young Men’s Hebrew Association Camera Club.
He used his family’s Kodak Box Brownie to take pictures of his beautiful sister Louise. However, during her teen years she suffered from psychotic episodes and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Growing up with his sister and the early influences of fashion made him strive to capture tragic beauty in his photography.
Personal life

4. Cont…
He attended Columbia University for a year studying philosophy and poetry before dropping out.
He ended up studying photography at the New School for Social Research with Alexey Brodovitch from
He became the lead photographer for a magazine called Harper’s Bazaar until he started working for Vogue magazine for 20 years.

5. Photography
Favorite camera/lens brand: Rolleiflex, Deardorff and Sinar
Other products he used: Umbrellas, beauty dishes and Elinchrom strobes
A lot of portrait work was done using a 8x10 view camera with lenses in the mm range.
Marilyn Monroe, actress, New York
Richard Avedon
(American, 1923–2004)
1957. Gelatin silver print, printed 1989, 7 15/16 x 7 13/16" (20.2 x 19.8 cm)

6. In the American West
This series was to portray Avedon’s take on the American West. Avedon visited and traveled through state fair rodeos, carnivals, coal mines, oil fields, slaughter houses and prisons to find the right subjects to photograph.
Sandra Bennett, twelve-year-old, Rocky Ford, Colorado, August 23, 1980
Heidi Hamilton and Gordy Bray, rodeo contestants, Douglas, Wyoming, July 28, 1981

7. Famous Photographs
Richard Avedon, Dovima with elephants, evening dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, August 1955; © 2009 The Richard Avedon Foundation
Andy Warhol, artist, New York, August 20, 1969

8. More
He was well known for minimalist, large-scale-character-revealing portraits.
Marian Anderson, singer, 1955, Gelatin silver print
Elizabeth Taylor, actor, New York, July 1, 1964

9. Emulation 1

10. Emulation 2

11. Bibliography
"RICHARD AVEDON: “Richard Avedon’s ‘In the American West'”." AMERICAN SUBURB X. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr
"About." Richard Avedon. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr
"What Camera Did Richard Avedon Use?" Who Uses What Camera RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr
"MoMA Learning." MoMA. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr
"Simply Stunning: Richard Avedon's Portraits." Visual Tidbits for the Culturally Curious. N.p., 31 Aug Web. 21 Apr
"Richard Avedon." Bio. A&E Television Networks, Web. 30