Instead of photographing the models frozen, in a predicted pose, with their hair and their make-up perfectly in place, he photographed them in movement. Some of them jumping, others running, and even some dancing. That was the first innovation Avedon created in the fashion world. 

 Veruschka, by Richard Avedon, New York, January 1967

Richard Avedon, Renée, “The New Look of Dior,” Place de la Concorde, Paris, August 1947

The other innovation was to photograph the models outside the studio and by doing so, creating stories. For me, Avedon’s work in fashion shows how fashion can exist in everyday scenes, the clothes worn by modern, stylish, independent women.

The economist (2004) points out that the impulsive style of the photographs were so scandalous that it irreversibly changed the old fashion shoots.

 Dorothy Horan, best known as Dovima, with elephants (1955)  

 Image from Harper’s bazaar (1955)

Avedon went on working in fashion photography in Paris for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, from 1947 to 1984, advertising the biggest brands like Chanel or Calvin Klein.