Profile
Richard Avedon
Photographer + Golfer + Author
Male
Born
May 15, 1923
Died
Oct 1, 2004
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."
Photos
View newly released photos of Richard Avedon.
News + Updates
Browse recent news and stories about Richard Avedon.
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Des Desserts Inspirés Des Chefs D'œuvre De L'art Moderne (Photos)The Huffington Post - Apr 07, 2013 -
Debra Levine: A Great Photographer Unleashed: Bert Stern: Original MadmanHuffington Post - Apr 03, 2013
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David Finkle: First Nighter: Emilia Clarke Does Holly Golightly In Stage Breakfast At Tiffany'sHuffington Post - Mar 21, 2013
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Frances Malcolm: Trending In Fashion: Helium And Hot AirHuffington Post - Feb 12, 2013
Timeline
Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Richard Avedon.
CHILDHOOD
1923
Birth
Born on May 15, 1923.
TEENAGE
1937
14 Years Old
He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he worked on the school paper The Magpie with James Baldwin from 1937 until 1940.
1942
19 Years Old
After briefly attending Columbia University, he started as a photographer for the Merchant Marines in 1942, taking identification pictures of the crewmen with his Rolleiflex camera given to him by his father as a going-away present.
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TWENTIES
In 1944, Avedon began working as an advertising photographer for a department store, but was quickly discovered by Alexey Brodovitch, the art director for the fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar.
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1945
22 Years Old
In 1945 his photographs began appearing in Junior Bazaar and, a year later, in Bazaar itself.
1946
23 Years Old
In 1946, Avedon had set up his own studio and began providing images for magazines including Vogue and Life.
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1950
27 Years Old
From 1950 he also contributed photographs to Life, Look and Graphis and in 1952 became Staff Editor and photographer for Theatre Arts Magazine.
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THIRTIES
1962
39 Years Old
When Diana Vreeland left Harper's Bazaar for Vogue magazine in 1962, Avedon joined her as a staff photographer.
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FORTIES
1963
40 Years Old
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He began to branch out and photographed patients of mental hospitals, the Civil Rights Movement in 1963, protesters of the Vietnam War, and later the fall of the Berlin Wall.
1964
41 Years Old
An exceedingly personal book called “Nothing Personal,” with a text by his high school classmate James Baldwin appeared in 1964.
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1968
45 Years Old
The next year he photographed the much more restrained portraits that were included with The Beatles in 1968.
FIFTIES
1973
50 Years Old
Among the many other rock bands photographed by Avedon, in 1973 he shot Electric Light Orchestra with all the members exposing their bellybuttons for recording, On the Third Day.
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Commissioned by the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, it was a six-year project Avedon embarked on in 1979, that produced 125 portraits of people in the American west who caught Avedon's eye.
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1982
59 Years Old
In 1982 Avedon produced a playfully inventive series of advertisements for fashion label Christian Dior, based on the idea of film stills.
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LATE ADULTHOOD
1984
61 Years Old
In his later years, he continued to contribute to Egoïste, where his photographs appeared from 1984 through 2000.
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1989
66 Years Old
Avedon won many awards for his photography, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1989, the International Center of Photography Master of Photography Award in 1993, the Prix Nadar in 1994 for his photobook Evidence, the Royal Photographic Society 150th Anniversary Medal as well as the National Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2003.
1992
69 Years Old
On working with Avedon, Shields told Interview magazine in May 1992 "When Dick walks into the room, a lot of people are intimidated.
2001
78 Years Old
He received honorary graduate degrees from the Royal College of Art (1989), Kenyon College (1993) and Parsons School of Design (1994), and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001.
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On October 1, 2004, Avedon died of a brain hemorrhage in San Antonio, Texas, while shooting an assignment for The New Yorker.
Original Authors of this text are noted on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Avedon.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Text is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.