Richard Avedon: fashion and portraiture as two threads of a career
The photographer’s foundation describes work in both fields over many years.
One way to approach Richard Avedon’s career is through two overlapping threads: fashion photography and portraiture. His foundation says he made identity photographs in the Merchant Marine before studying photography and entering professional work.
At Harper’s Bazaar he photographed fashion and models on streets, beaches and other locations. From early in his career he also made magazine portraits, attending to gestures, clothes and expressions. These were not two rigidly separate periods.
His later projects include The Family and In the American West. The foundation records that he became The New Yorker’s first staff photographer in 1992. These facts place his career in context without claiming a viewing assessment of Ron Howard’s documentary.