Richard Avedon Biography

Birth place:

Richard Avedon was born in New York City on the 15th of May, 1923. In his father's clothing store on Fifth Avenue, he fell in love with early fashion photos where he used to cut out the best images for Vanity Fair and Vogue.

Education of Richard Avedon:

He started studying philosophy at Columbia University but dropped it for a true passion that he found in his first job in 1942: taking identification photos of merchant ships' crews during World War II.

He enrolled in a course taught by Alexey Brodovitch whom he always recognized as a strong influence. He studied photography at the New School, a bohemian university where Harper's Bazaar art director – then the par excellence fashion magazine – discovered him.

Richard Profession:

In 1946 he opened his studio and devoted himself to selling pictures to the great magazines of that time, with Vogue and Life at the top, until being hired exclusively as Harper's director of photography. At Vogue, where from 1966 onwards he worked permanently, he continued with his quirky fashion images but also began to take up more journalistic subjects whether they were mentally ill people or Vietnam war protesters or black victims of discrimination.

He worked with Truman Capote to document the most influential figures of the twentieth century; portraits of Pablo Picasso, Buster Keaton, Mae West and Frank Lloyd Wright; series on seventies pacifist movement; In The American West , an extensive work carried out between 1979 and 1984 in which he portrayed 752 people from seventeen states of the Union and for which got some criticism about what some defined as cruel portraits; retrospective exhibitions of his work were organized at Metropolitan Museum Of Art In New York (1978) and National Portrait Gallery London (1995); since becoming first staff photographer ever employed by The New Yorker (which publishes few selected images usually preferring drawings cartoons) politicians artists have been among those who have sat for him there .

In 1993 the book An Autobiography was published , a retrospective of the photographer that contained some portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Charles Chaplin and a section entirely dedicated to his fashion photographs of the 1950s.

Awards:

Among his latest awards, in 1993 he was awarded Master of Photography, in 2000 - Excellence In Journalism Award from Columbia University and Medal Of The Royal Society Of Photography. His photographs have been exhibited at art galleries worldwide including Metropolitan Museum Of Art New York and Whitney which titled retrospective of five decades of photography Richard Avedon : Evidence .

Married Life:

He was married twice and divorced twice. He had one son.

Died:

Richard Avedon died on October 1 , 2004 in San Antonio, Texas.