Existing comment:
June Wayne, 1918-2011
The name of Richard Avedon is synonymous with fashion photography. His imaginative, original camera work revolutionized the industry of fashion and modeling, and his images quickly gained recog- nition as art. He also created other forms of portraiture, revealing likenesses of celebrated Americans, such as Marilyn Monroe and Janis Joplin, or other people whom he found interesting. Often choosing to create photographs in series, Avedon's well-known feature in Rolling Stone (1976), "The Family," featured unidealized portraits of a group of powerful elites. In 1978, he made this self-portrait for the cover of Newsweek, on the occasion of a major retrospective exhibition of his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Avedon was known for his insightful portrayals, but in this instance, he reveals very little of himself and chooses to look beyond the viewer, as though focusing his camera on another subject entirely.
1957 |