Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon:

Avedon was a very successful portrait photographer and was very well known for his fashion photos. He has worked for Vogue and Life magazines. In addition to his fashion photos, he also was a successful photo journalist. He took photos of mental hospitals and worldly events, famous people, and had a series called 'The Great American West'. His photos are easily distinguishable because of his minimalist style and usually stark white backgrounds. I love how much emotion he shows in his photos. His fashion portraits were successful because they just were not beautiful shots of people but because they showed some emotion and personality. The audience was no longer just looking at the woman or the garment that was being sold but thinking about the image as a whole more conceptually. My favorite work that he has done was The Great American West. Every image I have seen from the series has been beautiful and very inspirational to me. Even though he does not follow the rule of thirds the image is too striking to look away. His subjects often making eye contact and the detail of the photo makes you not want to look away. He also has a lot of contrast in his images but he makes it work. He found the sweet spot of contrast that works perfectly for his subjects.

Philippe Halsman: