Born: May 15th 1923
Died: October 1st 2004
Place of birth: New york
Died: October 1st 2004
Place of birth: New york
Richard Avedon is an American photographer and was best known for his work in the fashion world and for his minimalist, large scale character revealing portraits. He worked first as a photographer for the merchant marines taking identification photos. He then moved to fashion shooting for harper's bazaar and vogue and demanding that his models convey emotion and movement. From the start of his career his name became synonymous with fashion as well as portraiture. He photographed everyone from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to Marilyn Monroe and Dorothy Parker. He became the first ever staff photographer and his family was involved in the fashion world. Richard took an interest in fashion and photography from an early age and he attended dewitt clinton high school where he managed the school’s literary magazine. In addition to his work in the fashion world he was a master in portraiture and worked in political photography. Richard had been married and divorced twice and survived by his son John and four grandchildren. By the time he turned twelve his interest in photography grew by leaps and in order to pursue his interest he became a member of the young men’s hebrew association camera club. He began taking photographs using a Kodak box brownie and it is believed that it was his mother who inculcated in him a love for art and fashion. However his growing passion for photography and fashion led him to drop out of the university after his first year.
"All photographs are accurate, none of them is the truth."
"My portraits are more about me than they are abut the people I photograph."
My favourite picture
This picture is different to other artists as it doesn't have any shadows which most portraits that we see do have a light or a dark shadow. Also in this portrait he has a black and white person but in the backdrop he has used the colour grey and a bright white on the face and you can see a reflection in the persons eye. This picture grabbed my attention because the man himself is not situated right at the back of the picture and the camera is more zoomed into his face as we see more white colour in the middle of the picture then the background and this would be following one of the composition as not placing your subject directly at the back and taking a picture to there chest but this picture is different and the rule of thirds and golden ratio would strongly apply here. As well as this you can see some dark shadows at the bottom left of his face which is reflecting on his chin and neck. There is also a clear depth of field shown within this photo as the man himself is very focused however the background can be seen to be very blurry and this only shows us the importance of the man.
My attempt
In these pictures there is emotion in the peoples faces and eyes and shadows near their neck and face which is what Richard does with his pictures. The image at the bottom right is a strong picture because you can see dark shadows and lots of emotion and sense of feelings and makes the audience know how the person is feeling which is unfortunate and unhappy. It was really easy to do this because you have to put the brightness low at one side of the room on the softbox and the light coming from the other side which is the umbrella has to be a bit bright or dim. Another reason this work is inspired by him is the background is grey and white in his pictures and there are tones from light to dark in the girls pictures from the top of the backdrop to the bottom to her jumper and the shutter speed had to be fast in order to let less light in so the pictures come out to be dark and moody. As well as this the lighting was direct because the light is coming from the softbox and umbrella and that was the only light in the room where these pictures were taken and the blinds were closed. Also there is contrast in these images because they have scale of differences between black and white in all sorts of places near the clothes and face.