Famous+Photographer

=Richard Avedon=

1. Richard Avedon was born on May 15 1923 in New York. When he was 12 he had a Kodax Box Brownie camera and dropped out of high school to join the Merchant Marine's photographic section. When he returned to New York in 1944 he started work as a photographer for a department store and was later discovered by the art director at //Harper's Bazaar// magazine, Alexey Brodovitch. He also worked for a number of other magazines like //Vogue//, //Look// and //Life//. As be became more popular he was sought out be celebrities to take their portrait, for which was was known for. He had a real talent for catching the real ease and sophistication in his subjects while being very minimal. He also worked on quite a few books of portraits, one of which he worked on with Truman Capote which documented portraits on famous and important people. Also, he took photographs of patients in mental hospitals, The Civil Rights Movement, and protesters of the Vietnam War. He later strayed away from portraits of celebrities and was drawn to taking to images of people, carnival workers, miners, oil field workers and drifters. These photos were published and called //In the American West//, which was criticized for showing a bad image of America. Avedon continued working for //Vogue// and //Harper's Bazaar// and later became the staff photographer for //The New Yorker// in 1992. In 1989 he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London. During his photography career he won many awards for his work and had many exhibits all over the world. He died on October 1, 2004 of a brain hemorrhage while photographing an assignment for //The New Yorker//. Even though he has passed away his great images are still praised and is regarded as on of the most influential photographers of the 20th Century.

2. Richard Avedon's influences I think came from when he started in the Merchant Marine during WW2. He has said that that was his first time professionally photographing. I think this influenced his future photographs by creating an emotion of real life that was emitted by the photograph. His photos gave off the essence of raw life and emotions. He was drawn to taking photos of common people working in oil fields, at carnivals or just in their average life around the city.

3. The genre that Avedon mostly shot in was fashion and portraits. But he was widely known for his portraits of celebrities. He also took very cultural and artistic photos when taking picture of average Americans and people.

4. The design elements that are present in his photos are sometimes similar. In the image of the hand and the portraits of the farm girl and Audrey Hepburn are simple and single shots and are uncluttered. The fashion photo of the girl leaping down from the curb holding the umbrella has the design element of a narrow depth of field and makes a triangle with her legs. The image of the couple lounging on the grass has the design element of rule of thirds. The couple is in the bottom right third of the image and the mans legs form a triangle using the triangle design element. Their arms also make triangles. Also, along with the image of the farm girl she is slightly moved to the right which starts to follow the rule of thirds. I think these photos are good representations of Richard Avedon's photographic work. I think this because you see how he liked to photograph average American life in the photos of the couple lying in the park and the farm girl on a white background. I think that the photo of the hand shows how he liked to shoot very minimal photos usually on a white backdrop. The photo of Audrey Hepburn also shows his taste for minimalism while still capturing raw emotion. The use of light in the image of the hand and of Audrey Hepburn are similar because a lot of effect of the image is because of he shadow. In the image of the hand the light is coming from the left and in the image of Audrey Hepburn the light is coming from the right. The shadows that are produced from this add a dramatic effect to the photo. The photo of the couple lying in the park has a very natural light that you can see shining through the trees. This was taken in the daylight. As for the photo of the farm girl and girl leaping off the curb, you can't really tell where the light is coming from. In the image of the young girl it looks like the light is coming right at her. And the photo of the girl leaping it looks like the light is natural day light but its hard to tell where its coming from because she has no shadow.

Great analysis of his life and work! 55/55