Bio of Richard Avedon and a Review of His Photography

Emotional Images of Richard Avedon

Sometimes the most simplistic photographic images allow our imaginations to wonder the meaning and implications that the photographer was trying to convey to his or her viewers. Imagine being able to photograph major artists, political figures, and people of the public with just a white background and some black and white film, the end result consists of some the most emotional and impacting images that the human eye can view through a photograph. Richard Avedon is a photographer who has spanned more than a half a century and he has a very distinguished reputation and has been able to create some of the most original and iconic images of all time. 

Richard Avedon takes the usual traditional portrait, and creates an emotional and powerful image through the simple task of capturing humans’ pure emotions and conveying them through photographs. According to Philippe De Montebello from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “ His portraits are looked at as virtuosos reckoning with human complexities and contradictions and a powerful expression of this artist’s distinctive version.” Avedon’s work has a signature white background and sharp clarity combined with unforgiving light. Avedon’s photography is a combination of sensibility and naturalism along with occasional satire. 

His friends knew Richard as Dick Avedon, and he was radiant towards his friends and family and colleagues. He drew upon light and warmth for sustenance for not only his pictures, but also his own life. He died at the age of 81 and many said that some light seemed to disappear in many lives and pleasures that he was a part of throughout his life. Richard was a person who loved his family passionately and he believed in art with the same passion. People said that he was getting ready to take one more photograph when life fled from him, however if you look back on his life, he broke many barriers in both fashion and portrait photography (Gopnik, 1).