Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedonwas an American fashion and portrait 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"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth15 May 1923
CountryUnited States of America
hate eye wish
I hate cameras. They interfere, they’re always in the way. I wish: if I could just work with my eyes alone. To get a satisfactory print, one that contains all that you intended, is very often more difficult and dangerous than the sitting itself. When I’m photographing, I immediately know when I’ve got the image I really want. But to get the image out of the camera and into the open, is another matter.
lying writing mean
Camera lies all the time. It’s all it does is lie, because when you choose this moment instead of this moment, when you… the moment you’ve made a choice, you’re lying about something larger. Lying is an ugly word. I don’t mean lying. But any artist picks and chooses what they want to paint or write about or say. Photographers are the same.
thinking sometimes predicaments
Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me.
differences people accomplishment
I've photographed just about everyone in the world. But what I hope to do is photograph people of accomplishment, not celebrity, and help define the difference once again.
white light narrative
I've worked out of a series of no's. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narrative. And all these no's force me to the yes. I have a white background. I have the person I'm interested in and the thing that happens between us.
hate eye wish
I hate cameras. They interfere, they're always in the way. I wish: if I could work with my eyes alone.
photography facts opinion
The moment an emotion or fact is transformed into a photograph it is no longer a fact but an opinion.
photography art thinking
I think all art is about control, the encounter between control and uncontrollable.
freedom ideas style
Start with a style and you are in chains, start with an idea and you are free.
thinking people charm
i think charm is the ability to be truly interested in other people
art levels ifs
Anything is an art if you do it at the level of an art.
running ambition people
People — running from unhappiness, hiding in power — are locked within their reputations, ambitions, beliefs.
photography character giving
There was no such person as Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe was an invention of hers. A genius invention that she created, like an author creates a character. She understood photography, and she also understood what makes a great photograph. She related to it as if she were giving a performance. She gave more to the still camera than any actress-any woman- I've ever photographed.
portraits knows
A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he is being photographed