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This is one of my favorite pictures...It is Marilyn Monroe BTW, and it is one of THE most gorgeous pictures I have ever seen.
Posted on 10/1/2004, 6:12:50 PM by Borges
Photographer Richard Avedon dead at 81 Friday, October 1, 2004 Posted: 2:04 PM EDT (1804 GMT)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Richard Avedon, the revolutionary photographer who redefined fashion photography as an art form while achieving critical acclaim through his stark black-and-white portraits of the powerful and celebrated, died Friday. He was 81.
Avedon suffered a brain hemorrhage last month while on assignment in San Antonio, Texas, for The New Yorker, taking pictures for a piece called "On Democracy." He spent months on the project, shooting politicians, delegates and citizens from around the country.
He died at Methodist Hospital, said Perri Dorset, a spokeswoman for the magazine.
Avedon's influence on photography was immense, and his sensuous fashion work helped create the era of supermodels like Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford. But Avedon went in another direction with his portrait work, shooting unsparing and often unflattering shots of subjects from Marilyn Monroe to Michael Moore.
"The results can be pitiless," Time magazine critic Richard Lacayo once noted of the black-and-white portraits. "With every wrinkle and sag set out in high relief, even the mightiest plutocrat seems just one more dwindling mortal."
As a Publishers Weekly review once noted, Avedon helped create the cachet of celebrity -- if he took someone's picture, they must be famous. His fun-loving, fantasy-inspiring approach helped turn the fashion industry into a multibillion-dollar business.
Never heard of him.
A liberal?
One of the top ten greatest photographers.
Fred Astaire played him in the 1957 musical 'Funny Face'
Fred Astaire played him in the 1957 Stanley Donen musical 'Funny Face'.
I would think so, but he was a great photographer. You've seen dozens of his pictures (even if you don't realize it).
I would think so, but he was a great photographer. You've seen dozens of his pictures (even if you don't realize it).
WHO?
Condolences. Pass the pretzels.
One of his most famous photographs was of Nastassja Kinski and the snake. It was quite popular back in the 80's. No idea what his politics were.
Thanks for the Google link. Avedon really understood portraits, defined it maybe for the last part of the 20th. The Beatles stuff was cool in the 60s and 70s,
This has been a bad year for photographers - Eddie Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Francesco Scavullo, Carl Mydans, Helmut Newton...
to my dance list (we are discussing Theda Bara)
This is one of my favorite pictures...It is Marilyn Monroe BTW, and it is one of THE most gorgeous pictures I have ever seen.
His politics were Upper West Side liberal, as you might expect, but he never went on about them. His son, John Avedon, wrote an interesting book called "In Exile From the Land of the Snows", about Tibet and ChiCom tyranny, and his dad supported him while he wrote it, so he couldn't have been all that bad.
Avedon had a great eye -- and a great touch, apparently, because he enjoyed more horizontal encounters than Bubba, and with a far better class of gal: all the cover cuties he shot, then schtupped. As a long-lanced sofa swordsman, he was a legend in N.Y. publishing circles.
But most of all he was a great snapper. Wonderful tones and a classic feel for balance and composition. Centuries from now, his best shots will still be fresh and, if they have books, reproduced.
He might have voted Democratic (although I suspect he didn't bother to vote at all), but you should forgive him because his work was wonderful.
One of his more famous images.
I hear you on that. Don't care what Avedon's politics were - phenomenal photography. Ditto Mydans, Cartier-Bresson and Adams.
Father-in-law worked for him in N.Y. in the 60's...
I've always had a fascination dear old Norma Jean... and have never seen that picture. Probably one of the coolest pics I've ever seen--she works better as a brunette, I think. Wild.
Avedon was a phenomenal artist, and he'll be missed.
Heheheheh... that's a good one.
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