Then came portraiture

I think that Avedon at this point knew fashion and knew how to create incredible fashion photography but it wasn’t enough. He needed to truly express himself and explore a deeper artistic side of himself.

That deeper artistic part of Avedon came to life with his portraits.

In 1959 his first book was published: Observations designed by his colleague and former professor Alexey Brodovitch and written by Truman Capote.

This book is made of a series of portraits of famous people like Picasso, Charlie Chaplin or Hitchcock. In the book a lot of the pages are presented in a way where there are several photographs of the same person on the same page. 

I really enjoy how it is set up because for this photograph for example, on little picture the woman is smiling while looking towards the larger picture. She looks sweet and amused by the other picture. On the other picture, the woman is looking at the spectator of the photograph with a tough look. I see it as a woman looking at herself trying to show to other people how tough and strong she is. Avedon has managed to show us a part of this woman’s character, a part of who she is. 

Here is another page of the book:

Some of the photographs of the book are presented in a very different way. Here are some examples:

Funny Face

Avedon’s spontaneous and innovative work was successful and he became more and more famous. In 1957 he inspired the character of Dick Avery, a fashion photographer, played by Fred Astaire in the movie Funny Face (Grundberg 2004). 

Funny Face opening scene

Avedon was visual consultant and designed the opening title of the movie.

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.