The fashion world has lost one of its most respected artists, with the death this weekend of Richard Avedon. The renowned photographer died in a hospital in Texas after suffering a brain haemorrhage. He was 81 years old.
In the course of a career that spanned over 50 years, Avedon became one the world's most influential photographers. He broke all the rules laid down by his predecessor, Henri Cartier-Bresson, who felt that photographs should never be altered or manipulated in the darkroom. Instead the innovative newcomer would blur and distort his images, using complex retouching techniques to get the effect he wanted.
But Avedon is perhaps best-known for his stark, black-and-white portraits. His trademark was to set his subjects against a white background and use sharp focus, so that every line and imperfection in the skin became visible.
The technique was considered shocking in a time when reverence for celebrities was the norm. Indeed his 1957 portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor outraged royalists, while his book Nothing Personal was criticised for showing stars as freaks and monsters. But the lensman himself insisted he was simply trying to represent the truth in his work.
From his early days taking pictures for identity cards, Avedon went on to become The New Yorker's first staff photographer, before working with Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. His body of work includes some of the most enduring images of stars like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Jean Shrimpton.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
