|
richard avedon, one of the ten greatest photographers in the world, died october 1st, 2004 ............................................................................................
|
|||
|
|||
 ......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary
richard avedon |
|||
was born in new york on may 15, 1923 of russian-jewish immigrant parents. he attended dewitt clinton high school in the bronx, but never completed an academic education. in 1940, at age 17, avedon dropped out of high school and joined the merchant marine's photographic section, taking personnel identification photos. later, he went on several missions to photograph shipwrecks. upon his return in 1944, he found a job as a photographer in a department store. Initially, avedon made his living primarily through work in advertising. as a staff photographer for harper's bazaar and later for vogue, avedon became well known for his stylistically innovative fashion work, often set in vivid and surprising locales. ‘if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up,’ he said in 1970. --- portraits although avedon first earned his reputation as a fashion photographer, his greatest achievement has been his reinvention of the genre of photographic portraiture. his ability to express the essence of his subject. avedon’s pictures continue to bring us a 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. when printed, the images regularly contain the dark outline of the film in which the image was framed. avedon's photographs confront us with miners, unemployed people, drifters, farmers, cowboys, and convicts, often 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. 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 labour, 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. --- fame in 1989 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. --- among his most recent exhibitions: in 1994 the whitney museum in new york brought together fifty years of his work in the retrospective, ‘richard avedon: evidence’. in 2001 the kunstmuseum wolfsburg, in germany staged ‘richard avedon: in the american west’. this exhibition showed, for the first time in europe, the full sequence of 124 portraits of the working class people of the american west, which avedon took between 1979 and 1984 on a commission from the amon carter museum in fort worth, texas. http://www.kunstmuseum-wolfsburg.de in 2002 the metropolitan museum of art in new york featured approximately 180 works ‘richard avedon: portraits’. he chose his subjects among people who interested him, instead of photographing people on commission. all were shot against a white background, without any of the typical poses or smiling faces. http://www.metmuseum.org avedon’s last assignment was in san antonio, texas, where he took pictures for a piece called ‘on democracy’ for the new yorker. he spent months on the project, shooting politicians, delegates and citizens from around the country. http://www.richardavedon.com/editorial2004/newyorker books by richard avedon: ‘observations’ with text by truman capote (1959). ‘nothing personal’ with text by james baldwin (1964). ‘alice in the wonderland: the forming of a company the making of a play’, with text by doon arbus (1973). ‘portraits’ (1976). ‘avedon : photographs 1947-1977’ (1978). ’in the american west’ (1985). an autobiography’ (1993). ‘evidence: 1944-1994’ (1994). --- avedon died on october 1st, 2004 at age 81. more info http://www.richardavedon.com ---  ------- monthly designboom newsletter ------- ------- ? comments and contact us ? ------- |
 dorothy horan, best known as dovima, with elefants (1955) © richard avedon courtesy fraenkel gallery, new york http://www.fraenkelgallery.com  image from harper’s bazaar (1955) © richard avedon  andy warhol (1969) © richard avedon courtesy fraenkel gallery, new york http://www.fraenkelgallery.com  truman capote (1974) © richard avedon courtesy the metropolitan museum of art, new york  james kimberlin (1980) © richard avedon courtesy the kunstmuseum-wolfsburg  roberto lopez (1980) © richard avedon courtesy the kunstmuseum-wolfsburg  ronald fischer (1981) © richard avedon courtesy the kunstmuseum-wolfsburg  richard avedon on the poster of the ‘evidence’ exhibition (1994) © richard avedon courtesy whitney museum, new york |
||
 |
|||
