Famous Photojournalists Project By: Toni Hill Guest Star: Richard Avedon!

Richard Avedon Richard Avedon was born in New York City on May 15, Educated in the New York City public school system, he left DeWitt Clinton High School without graduating. In 1942 he enrolled in the Merchant Marine's photographic section. Returning to civilian life in 1944, he worked as a department store photographer. A year later he was hired as a fashion photographer by Alexey Brodovitch, the art director of Harper's Bazaar. In 1946 he established his own studio and after that contributed photographs to Vogue, Theatre Arts, Life, Look, and Graphis.

“Avedon’s Style” (Boyd Fortin, Thirteen year old rattlesnake skinner,Sweetwater, Texas, March, 10, 1979.) Although Avedon first earned his reputation as a fashion photographer, his greatest achievement has been his reinvention of the genre of photographic portraiture and his ability to express the essence of his subject. Avedon’s pictures keep bringing us closer, more intimate view of the great and the famous. the portraits are often well lit and in front of white backdrops, with no props or extraneous details to distract from their person - from the essential specificity of face, gaze, dress, and gesture...

More by Avedon (Ronald Fisher, beekeeper Davis, California 5/9/81) Avedon's photographs confronts us with miners, unemployed people, drifters, farmers, cowboys, and convicts, usually at life-size or over. most of those photographed try to give as little of themselves away as possible. They appear to show no feelings beyond scepticism and reserve. In the bar, or at the rodeo, or wherever Avedon has found them. They may have been emotionally involved, cheerful, uninhibited, stressed or sad: but in front of his camera, they appear totally inward.

What feelings do u have? (Image by Harper’s Bazaar -1955) There is barely a trace of the theatrical expressiveness or the extravagant gestures that Avedon elicits from the actors, singers or writers who sit for him.. These portraits are expressive nevertheless. their hard physical labor, the harshness of their everyday lives, their struggle for survival, has etched their features and their souls as a river gouges out a canyon. their faces become landscapes, and their bodies territories, on which they carry their garments around with them.

Finally Richard Avedon’s Success received an honorary doctorate from the royal college of art in London and in 1992 he became the first staff photographer for the New Yorker. ‘The world’s most famous photographer’ trumpeted a 2002 story on Avedon in the New York times. it was a title he wore for decades. back in 1958, he was named one of the world’s 10 finest photographers by popular photography magazine (he was also reputed to be the world’s highest-paid photographer). in 2003, he received a national arts award for lifetime achievement.

Final Farewell… (Born:1923 N.Y.C.- Died:2004 October 4, 2004) He died after suffering a brain hemorrhage while on assignment for the New Yorker magazine in San Antonio, Texas.