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
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.
giving-up soul pieces
If each photograph steals a bit of the soul, isn't it possible that I give up pieces of mine every time I take a picture?
american-photographer concern consider human pictures simply
Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me. My concern is... the human predicament; only what I consider the human predicament may simply be my own.
picks
Any artist picks and chooses what they want to paint or write about or say. Photographers are the same.
deeper knocking
Fashion is where I make my living. I'm not knocking it; it's a pleasure to make a living that way. Then there's the deeper pleasure of doing my portraits.
face work
Click! In other words, I'm in a very controlling position, and I can bring... and I've already... if the camera's on you, your face is very concentrated. You're listening. You don't know what I'm going to say next, and now you're smiling. All these things are the things I work with.
adorable album children ends family good guy next pictures screaming
What ends up in your scrapbook? The pictures where you look like a good guy and a good family man, and the children look adorable - and they're screaming the next minute. I've never seen a family album of screaming people.
american-photographer art
I think all art is about control - the encounter between control and the uncontrollable.
photography running trying
It's in trying to direct the traffic between Artiface [sic] and Candor, without being run over, that I'm confronted with the questions about photography that matter most to me.
photography persons
There is no truth in photography. There is no truth about anyone's person.
jobs men fantasy
One man's fantasy is another man's job.
way performances
We all perform. It's what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintionally. It's a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we'd like to be.--PERFORMANCE
faces
Faces are the ledgers of our experience.
confusion people roles
People, unprotected by their roles, become isolated in beauty and intellect and illness and confusion.