From a young age, Richard Avedon was exposed to fashion. But little did the small boy sitting in his father’s 5th Avenue womens’ clothing store know, that he would later become the worlds’ biggest fashion photographer. He was born in New York City in 1923 to Jacob Avedon a Russian immigrant who worked his way up in the city to finally own his own clothing store. Avedon’s mother, Anna, was a musical and artsy woman who was his artistic muse. His sister, Louise, was also an inspiration to him. As a child, he constantly took pictures of his beautiful sister, his first model. His interest in photography began after joining a photography club at his local Young Men's Hebrew Association. After graduating high school in 1941, Richard attended Columbia University to study philosophy and poetry, but after just one year, he dropped out to enlist in the military marines. In the marines,he was a photographer in World War Two, taking pictures for identification cards.
After the war, Avedon went back to school, at the New School for Social Research, to pursue photography and learn from Alexey Brodovitch, a well known photographer and designer at the Harper’s Bazaar magazine. Brodovitch influenced Avedon to take high caliber photos and eventually hired him as a staff photographer at the magazine. It was at Harper’s Bazaar where Richard’s career really took off. He was sent to France in the late 1940’s to take a fashion photo shoot. From then on Avedon was renowned as an extremely talented photographer, who captured everyone’s attention with his pictures of flowing dresses and unposed fashion portraits.
Richard Avedon changed the images of fashion photography. Avedon loved the idea of movement. He was one of the first fashion photographers to p...
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...ised and famous photos ever taken. Despite being critically acclaimed all over the world, another lesson his first editors taught him was to not believe in compliments. Avedon never accepted compliments showing a modest side to a world of greedy celebrities.
Sadly on October 1, 2004, Avedon died while on site for a photoshoot of cerebral hemorrhage in San Antonio, Texas. He will be remembered by his creation of controversy, invasive photos, and being able to bring up the humility and personality in a subject. He was a daring and bold individual who let the world see inside of his head. He let them see the crazy, the beautiful, and most importantly the truth in what he saw. He was an artist first, a friend to his subjects second, and a photographer third. He didn’t care what the world thought of him, he just wanted to make his mark. And, Richard Avedon certainly did.
Richard Allen was enslaved at birth to a family in Philadelphia of a prominent lawyer and officeholder, Benjamin Chew. Allen was sold with his family to Stokely Sturgis, a farmer in Delaware in 1768. In 1777, Allen experienced a religious conversion to Methodist. And then he later purchased his freedom in 1780. Allen was co-founder of the Free African Society in 1787, he helped many during the Yellow Fever Epidemic of Philadelphia in 1793, and he established Mother Bethel’s African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816.
Johnson, Brooks. Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers on their Art.” New York: Aperture Foundation Inc., 2004. Print.
He wore a white button up shirt with black dress pants, a tie, and spotlessly clean shoes. His face lit up as he was looking through the pictures he just took. He faced his camera screen towards me. On the screen I saw silhouettes of people and sailboats with their reflection glistening on the water, as if it was a mirror. After viewing his photographs, you could tell that Paris has a very unique perspective on the world.
It’s his compassion for his subjects and his commitment to them that surpasses the act of making a pretty picture. Spending days with his subjects in the slums of Harlem or the hardly developed mountains of West Virginia, he immerses himself into the frequently bitter life of his next award-winning photo. Often including word for word text of testimonials recorded by junkies and destitute farmers, Richards is able to provide an unbiased portrayal. All he has done is to select and make us look at the faces of the ignored, opinions and reactions left to be made by the viewer. Have you ever been at the beach safely shielded by a dark pair of sunglasses and just watched?
The poem “Extended Development” by Sarah Kay explores the ways in which the art of photography has changed throughout time, yet still remains a highly important and influential hobby. More specifically, how photography is an important aspect in each member of the speaker’s family. By using allusions, characterization, and imagery, Kay explores how the art of photography has changed throughout time.
Beaton took his inspiration from the most successful magazine photographers of the 1910’s and 1920’s including E.O. Hoppe, Edward Steichen and Baron de Meyer (Victoria & Albert Museum, 2010). Vogue published its first portrait by Beaton in 1928 (Harrison, 1987). It was his exhibition in London that won him this contract that later led much of his work to appear in the magazine. He went on to work with Vogue for over fifty years with both the American and British editions (Patrick, 2009).
2. Strand was the first photographer to acheive a really decisive break with pictorialism and apply some of the lessons of the new modern art to photography.
Man Ray, film maker of Étoile de mer, began his career as an American painter and photographer. During his lifetime he became a prominent leader in the Dada and Surrealist society and was one of the only Americans to do this. He spent most of his career in photography; this is where he made his biggest impact on 20th century art. “The more commercial aspects of Many Ray’s photography provided him with a steady income. Famous as a portrait photographer, in the 1920s and 1930s he was also one of the foremost fashion photographers for magazines such as Harper’s Basaar, Vu and Vogue” (Foresta 2009). Man Ray was also very involved in avant-garde art. He worked with Duchamp and Katherine Dreier to co-found an organization called the Société Anonyme, which was “one of the first organizations to promote and collect avant-garde art” (Foresta 2009). After a while Ray began to feel like American’s were not appreciating his work for what it is and that never would, but Paris might.
Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Cindy Sherman grew up in suburban Huntington Beach on Long Island, the youngest of five children and had a regular American childhood. She was very self-involved, found of costumes, and given to spending hours at the mirror, playing with makeup (Schjeldahl 7). Cindy Sherman attended the state University College at Buffalo, New York, where she first started to create art in the medium of painting. During her college years, she painted self-portraits and realistic copies of images that she saw in photographs and magazines. Yet, she became less, and less interested in painting and became increasingly interested in conceptual, minimal, performance, body art, and film alternatives (Sherman 5). Sherman’s very first introductory photography class in college was a complete failure for she had difficulties with the technological aspects of making a print. After her disastrous first attempt in photography, Sherman discovered Contemporary Art, which had a profound and lasting effect on the rest of her artistic career (Thames and Hudson 1). Sherman’s first assignment in her photography class was to photograph something which gave her a problem, thus, Sherman chose to photograph her self naked. While this was difficult, she learned that having an idea was the most important factor in creating her art, not so much the technique that she used.
The world has many photographers that anyone can look at. You can call me an amateur or say I don’t really understand the art but when I look at most of the pictures available, and I have looked at thousands lately, I don’t see anything different in the style of photography. I just see pictures. I see pictures of beautiful subjects and pictures of ugly subjects. I never really thought about the difference being the photographer instead of the subject, until I saw Elliott Erwitt.
Women have spent a large amount of time throughout the 20th century fighting for liberation from a patriarchal form that told them that they must be quiet and loyal to their husbands and fathers. For the duration of this essay, I will be discussing how the “Modern Woman” image that appeared through the Art Deco style — that emulated ideas such as the femme fatale and masqueraded woman, and presented new styles to enhance women’s comfortability and freedom — is still prevalent and has grown in contemporary art and design since. Overall I will describing to you how fashion, sexuality, and the newly emerged ‘female gaze’, and how these tie in together — in both periods of time — to produce what can be described as powerful femininity.
In 1958, Irving Penn was named one of "The World’s 10 Greatest Photographers" in an international poll conducted by Popular Photography Magazine. Penn’s statement at the time is a remarkable summation of purpose and idealism: "I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children."
Annie was born in Waterbury, Connecticut and spent most of her childhood in military bases, because her father had a career as an officer in the AIR FORCE. Growing up one of six, her father was circulating everywhere. Annie’s mother, was a stay at home mom, a wife, and a teacher. If she ever talked clamorously or if she was eager, she claimed it was because of her extensive and uproarious family foundation. She took classes at night to study the art of painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. In 1970, her distinctive portraits started showing in Rolling Stone magazine, and have been ever since (“Annie Leibovitz a photographers life1990-2005”). Annie Leibovitz is one of Americas’ most well known celebrity portrait photographer for her work in Rolling Stone magazine and her work in Vanity Fair.
In conclusion, although Arbus was given a lot of public attention and criticized for being exploitative, she changed how the world viewed photographs. She created a unique depiction of the city with her unusual images, showing the world how mad and beautiful the people of New York were in the 1950’s and 60’s.
“Some photographs are destined to be ruined or forgotten. Some photographs are destined to be remembered and cherished. Such as his infamous portrait which almost did not make it.” (1946) Life Magazine.