Research Notes: Richard Avedon -

Photographer Research -

Richard Avedon -

Born: May 15th 1923
Died: October 1st 2004
Place of Birth: San Antonio, Texas, USA
Occupation: Fashion and portrait photographer
Groups: Portraiture
Camera Used: Kodak Box Brownie, later large format 8x10

• Avedon was born to a Jewish Russian father and a mother who together owned a retail and dress-manufacturing company.
• Avedon's interest in photography began at an early age of 12 when he joined a Young Men's Hebrew Association Camera Club.
• His first works were focused on his sister who served as his muse. She was distanced from reality due to her schizophrenia which significantly influenced Avedon to depict tragic beauty in most of his later works.
• In 1944 Avedon worked as an advertising photographer for a department store.
• In 1946 set up his own studio and began using his work in cohesion with Vogue and Life.
• Avedon was breaking from the mould of fashion photographers and pioneered work full of emotions and began shooting outdoors.
• In the 1960s Avedon broke into new fields of photography and began photographing public sector workers and then patients in mental hospitals.
• Avedon was commissioned by Mitchell A. Wilder to photograph people out in the west for a Texan museum; this was the 'In The American West' project.

Richard Avedon Examples:

This image is a striking stereotype of Vogue as photographer by Avedon. The outdoors photoshoot was pioneered by Avedon and dramatic poses were often the significant subject of the image. The depth of field draws focus directly onto the subject and the clothing. The stark black and white tonal differences also establish the significance of the clothing.

This image, within the series of 'In The American West' is, to me, a study of masculinity. The clothing resembles a manual labourer of the temporal time period and the spatial context of America specifically in the west. The father appears in a masculine stance but the child s completely trusting the father. The border on the image given the impression of a polaroid which therefore gives the impression of intimacy which is directly contrasted to the deadpan facial expression.

This photograph depicts the stereotypes and archetypes of western America. The laws support the handling of guns and therefore accurately depicts Texas which conforms to the idea that it was a commission.