A while back, Richard Avedon had a confession to make. “I hate cameras,” said the man who revolutionized fashion and portrait photography. “If I could only work with my eyes alone!”
Yet Avedon’s photos seem to do just that — they remove the distance the camera lens creates to make you feel that you are right there beside his subjects.
Born in New York City in 1923, Avedon had a stern father, an artistic mother and a beautiful, but troubled, sister. At 18, he wanted to be a poet. And the slight, 5’7” dreamer didn’t lack confidence — or a sense of drama. “I know my drifting will not prove a loss / For mine is a rolling stone that has gathered moss,” he wrote in 1941.
A year later, Avedon joined the Merchant Marines, where he spent his World War II years shooting ID photos of new recruits. “I must have taken pictures of 100,000 faces before it occurred to me I was becoming a photographer,” he later recalled.
After demobilization in 1944, Avedon shot fashion pictures for the tony Manhattan department store Bonwit Teller and studied with Alexey Brodovitch, the legendary art director of Harper’s Bazaar. By 1945, his work was appearing in Junior Bazaar.
“His first photographs for us were technically very bad,” Brodovitch later recalled. “But they were not snapshots. . . . Those first pictures of his had freshness and individuality, and they showed enthusiasm and a willingness to take chances.”
Who else was willing to take chances? Brodovitch and Carmel Snow, editor in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, who soon sent the young talent to fashion’s sacred capital, Paris.
The postwar years were hard in Paris. When Avedon first arrived there, in 1946, it was with an explicit directive from Snow. “Dick was tasked with this idea that he was there to rebuild Paris,” explains Martin. In restoring the energy and excitement around Paris, Avedon imbued it with some of his own.
Avedon’s models jumped, twirled, leapt over puddles and they smiled. Like Avedon himself, they rarely stood still. While he wasn’t the first to use action in fashion photography (in the 1930s, Martin Munkacsi and Toni Frissell began creating fashion images of women engaged in sporty scenarios), Avedon was the first to pair such vitality with women wearing couture.
Character and spirit became la mode. Dovima’s graceful silhouette juxtaposed against the wrinkled heft of two shackled elephants. Dorian Leigh laughing and embracing a bicycle racer. Suzy Parker roller skating across the Place de la Concorde. Sunny Harnett and her cool gaze just daring the roulette table — and every man in the room — not to do her bidding. There was always a narrative in an Avedon mise en scène — whether the background was elaborately staged or stark, the model’s job had forever changed from posing, to acting.
Of course, Avedon did not limit himself to fashion photography. The little boy who once collected autographs grew up to create the most iconic portraits of the 20th century, many of these were included in an exhibition at Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, New York, in 2017.
A 1958 New Yorker profile noted that even though Avedon’s portraits immortalized cultural elites such as Truman Capote, Elsa Maxwell and Charles Laughton, the qualities that most interested the photographer were “advanced age, physical debility, ugliness, or the pathos underlying the surface insouciance.” Yet “none of Avedon’s subjects seem to resent this kind of treatment . . . being selected to sit for one of his Harper’s Bazaar portraits ranks as an accolade.”
Over the next 40-plus years of his career, his iconic portraiture never lost its force; although at times, his unvarnished truth felt cruel.
But Avedon was a creator, not an observer, and he made no apologies for this. The sitter and the photographer “have separate ambitions for the image,” he wrote in 1985. “His need to plead his case probably goes as deep as my need to plead mine, but the control is with me.”
Find original Richard Avedon photography on 1stDibs.
The Beatles Portfolio - Offset and Lithograph by Richard Avedon - 1967
By Richard Avedon
Located in Roma, IT
A complete portfolio of four individual psychedelic portraits of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, accompanied by the composite poster uniting all four i...
Lithograph, Offset
Richard Avedon Original 1967 poster featuring John Lennon - The Beatles
By Richard Avedon
Located in PARIS, FR
Original 1967 poster featuring John Lennon, one of the iconic members of The Beatles, immortalized by the legendary photographer Richard Avedon, is a timel...
Paper
RICHARD AVEDON - CENTER FOR CREATIVE IMAGING
By Richard Avedon
Located in Portland, ME
Avedon, Richard. RICHARD AVEDON - CENTER FOR CREATIVE IMAGING. Poster, 1991. Signed in ink by Avedon. Captioned " Gordon Stevenson, drifter Interstate 90 Butte Montana...
Offset
$1,172
Richard Avedon Original 1967 poster featuring Paul McCartney - The Beatles
By Richard Avedon
Located in PARIS, FR
The original 1967 poster featuring Paul McCartney, a luminary member of The Beatles, captured by the legendary photographer Richard Avedon, stands as a sig...
Paper
Bianca Jagger - Photograph by Richard Avedon - 1978
By Richard Avedon
Located in Roma, IT
Fine Duotone Photolithograph, printed in 1978. Medium weight - satin/matte finish. Excellent condition. Certificate of authenticity on rear.
Photographic Paper
Les années 1940 (Stephanie Seymour: La Passante du Siecle)
By Richard Avedon
Located in Houston, TX
Richard Avedon Les années 1940 (Stephanie Seymour: La Passante du Siecle), 1997 Gelatin silver print 15 1/2 x 19 in (39.4 x 48.3 cm) Edition of 4 JPHB 5683
Silver Gelatin
Richard Avedon Original 1967 poster featuring Ringo Starr - The Beatles
By Richard Avedon
Located in PARIS, FR
The original 1967 poster featuring Ringo Starr, one of the legendary members of The Beatles, captured by the renowned photographer Richard Avedon, stands as an iconic piece of pop cu...
Paper
Price Upon Request
Suzy Parker and Gardner McKay (Dress by Balmain), Café Des Beaux-Arts, Paris
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
Richard Avedon (1923-2004) Suzy Parker and Gardner McKay (Dress by Balmain), Café des Beaux-Arts, Paris, August 1956 1956/2001 Signed and numbered in pencil, verso Gelatin silver ...
Silver Gelatin
Elise Daniels, Turban by Paulette, Le Pré-Catelan, Paris
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
Signed by the photographer on the verso
Silver Gelatin
Price Upon Request
Marlene Dietrich, Turban by Dior, The Ritz, Paris, 1955
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
Signed by the photographer on the verso
Silver Gelatin
Twiggy, Hair by Ara Gallant, Paris Studio, January, 1968
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
Signed by the photographer
Silver Gelatin
$350
H 16 in W 20 in D 0.02 in
Kirk Hutton 'Commissionaire's Dog' Archival Photograph by Getty, 16x20
Located in San Rafael, CA
A hotel commissionaire talking to a small dachshund dog in Piccadilly Circus, London. Original Publication: Picture Post - 2 - In The Heart of the Empire - pub. 1938 (Photo by Kurt H...
Photographic Paper
Emma in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, April 1984
By Jonathan Becker
Located in New York, NY
Emma in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, 1984 Pão de Açucar, (Sugarloaf Mountain), Rio’s defining landmark looms in the background. Photographed by Jonathan Becker Contemporary 14" x 14.5...
Platinum
$795
H 24 in W 20 in
Afghan Girl iconic poster: Sharbat Gula, Pakistan (Hand Signed by Steve McCurry)
By Steve McCurry
Located in New York, NY
Steve McCurry Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, Pakistan (Hand Signed), 1984 Offset Lithograph poster Hand signed by the photographer in black felt pen on the front 24 × 20 inches Unframed...
Felt Pen, Lithograph, Offset
Untitled Portrait
By Seydou Keïta
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV Plexi ($900 value), free shipping, and a 14-day return policy. Seydou Keïta Untitled Portrait, 1952 - 1955 (02158) 23...
Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Joan and Quintana Roo (Frame 27a.)
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes free shipping for unframed prints and a 14 day return policy. Joan Didion by Julian Wasser 20 x 16 inch gelatin silver print Edition 3 of 15 Signed on verso by Julian Wasser *Please inquire for international shipments. Quotes will be provided at cost via FedEx. Description - Julian Wasser started his career in photography in the Washington DC bureau of the Associated Press where he met and accompanied the famous news photographer Weegee – who would become a lasting influence on him. In the mid-60s Wasser moved to Los Angeles as a contract photographer for TIME, LIFE, and FORTUNE magazines and becoming internationally known as the go to guy for getting candid but memorably composed photographs. (His iconic images of Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston; Marcel Duchamp and Eve Babitz; and a young Jodie Foster are already classics.) In 1968 TIME Magazine assigned Wasser to go to the home of the young writer Joan Didion whose book Slouching Towards Bethlehem was becoming a literary sensation. “I’d read her fiction,” said Wasser. “and she didn’t miss a thing. She was such a heavyweight person.” Wasser shot Didion at her rented house on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, where she lived with her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, and their daughter, Quintana Roo. “It was a nice, cozy house,” Wasser remembers. “And she was a very easy person to talk to...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV plexiglas, free shipping and a 14 day return policy. Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928 15 x 12 inch gelatin silver print Image Size: 14 x 8.5 inches Frame size: 22.5 x 17.5 x 2 inches Edition of 15 Lora Webb Nichols was born in 1883 and grew up in the small mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. At the age of 16 Lora received her first camera and from that moment and for the next few decades she produced work that is both stunning in its singular voice and revealing in the world it opens up for us. At first Nichols photographed her family, friends, and the landscape around Encampment, but when the town experienced a copper mining boom Nichols expanded her scope to become a photographer for hire shooting portraits and industrial photographs. When the boom collapsed, Nichols took the risk of opening her own business in Encampment - The Rocky Mountain Studio - which opened in 1925. The studio ran for ten years, accumulating 24,000 negatives that illustrate the lives and environment of the people living in and around the town while creating a distinctive and surprising body of work. If one was to attempt an analogy – Nichols’ pictures fit somewhere between Lartigue and Lange - joyful and generous while objectively intimate. In particular what seems to distinguish Nichols’ work is the way she sees the world from a female perspective. As Vince Aletti...
Silver Gelatin
$5,000
H 11 in W 14 in
Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp playing chess during Duchamp's Pasadena Art Museum
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing is for an unframed print and includes free shipping to the continental US and 14-day return policy. Julian Wasser Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp pl...
Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin
$3,350
H 39.97 in W 25.01 in D 0.04 in
BOAC Speedbird Routes Across the World – Original Vintage British Airline Poster
By Harold Foster
Located in Zurich, CH
Original Vintage Airline Poster by Harold Foster. He created several designs commissioned by the British Overseas Airways Corporation ...
Paper
Rhodotorulic Acid. Woodcut in colors. Signed.
By Damien Hirst
Located in Paris, FR
HIRST Damien (1965 - ) Rhodotorulic Acid. Woodcut in colors. Signed. Provenance : DTR Modern Gallery, New York. About Damien Hirst (Artist) British artist Damien Hirst is widely considered the enfant terrible of contemporary art. He is the most prominent of the so-called Young British Artists, or YBAs, a group, largely composed of Hirst’s classmates at Goldsmiths, in London, that began exhibiting together in warehouses and factories after 1988 and is known for the use of unconventional materials and “shock tactics.” In the 1990s, Hirst said, “I can’t wait to get into a position to make really bad art and get away with it.” And indeed, he is notorious for piquing critics and baffling the public with such pieces as his signature glass vitrines containing dead sheep or sharks in formaldehyde, and his diamond-encrusted skull, For the Love of God. Working primarily in sculpture, Hirst takes after French modernist master Marcel Duchamp in his use of ready-made objects and materials, which he combines to ironic effect. He often creates in series, as with The Cure (Violet) and The Cure (Turquoise), both from 2014, which are among several pill paintings...
Paper
$39,300
H 26.78 in W 38.59 in D 0.04 in
Les Musiciennes – lithograph, hand-signed and numbered
By Le Corbusier
Located in Zurich, CH
Together with "Bouteilles" one of the largest and most sought after lithographs by Le Corbusier, printed by Mourlot on Arches after a collage by LC....
Paper
$13,700
H 48.82 in W 36.42 in D 0.04 in
Original Vintage Secession Poster celebrating the emperor's jubilee
Located in Zurich, CH
Original Vintage Poster by the Austrian artist Ferdinand Ludwig Graf, a member of the Hagenbund. This Viennese artist association moved as soon a...
Paper
$1,628
H 24 in W 20 in
Liz Hurley - Celebrity Photography Print (Limited Edition of 25) -- 20 x 24 In.
Located in New York, NY
Elizabeth Hurley photographed by British celebrity and fashion photographer John Stoddart. This risqué iconic black and white photograph expresses her incredible figure, capturing the actress completely naked, against the head of a large Grecian bust...
Silver Gelatin
"Friends in Deed"
By Richard Avedon
Located in Astoria, NY
Richard Avedon (American, 1923-2004), "Friends in Deed", Gelatin Silver Print, 1999, signed in ink and dated lower right, wood frame. Image: 9.75" H x 7.75" W; frame: 18" H x 15.5" W...
Silver Gelatin
Sold
H 26.78 in W 18.51 in
Richard Avedon Original 1967 poster featuring George Harrison The Beatles
By Richard Avedon
Located in PARIS, FR
Original 1967 poster featuring George Harrison, an iconic member of The Beatles, immortalized by the visionary photographer Richard Avedon, stands as a rem...
Paper
Sold
H 24.02 in W 35.44 in
hand-signed 1981 poster of Richard Avedon Nastassja Kinski and the serpent
By Richard Avedon
Located in PARIS, FR
In the world of photography and fashion, Richard Avedon remains an iconic figure whose work continues to inspire and captivate audiences. One of his most celebrated pieces, this hand...
Linen, Paper
Sold
H 9.73 in Dm 7.49 in
Marilyn Monroe for "Some Like It Hot, shooting", USA, 1958
By Richard Avedon
Located in Cologne, DE
Norma Jeane Mortenson or better known as Marilyn Monroe – iconic, beautiful and maybe the most known Hollywood Stars of the 20th century. Born and raised in Los Angeles, USA, she spe...
Black and White
Sold
H 40 in W 25 in
Richard Avedon Who Has a Better Right to Oppose the War (Vietnam protest poster)
By Richard Avedon
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Richard Avedon, "Who Has a Better Right to Oppose the War?," Vintage original protest poster, 1969 A famous 1969 Richard Avedon illustrated poster against the Vietnam War. Avedon's picture depicts a handsome soldier wearing a formal US Army uniform colored bright red (symbolic for blood). The soldier is seen holding a white dove, over the caption, 'Who Has a Better Right to Oppose the War?' Commissioned by The Student Mobilization Committee, the poster became a effective anti-war rallying device of the late 1960s. Off-set lithograph in colors 25 x 40 inches Some signs of minor handling; otherwise very good Plate signed on lower left Collections Whitney Museum of American Art - Daniel Wolf Collection of Protest Posters Richard Avedon’s dynamic, stylized portraits helped bridge the worlds of fashion and fine art photography. Avedon captured his staged subjects on black-and-white film, sometimes in motion. He turned his probing, intimate gaze on both everyday civilians and cultural icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Malcolm X. Avedon served as a photographer in the military before working as both a freelancer and staff photographer for publications including Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, The New Yorker, Life, and others. While he is widely known for his commercial and editorial practices, Avedon also exhibited widely in cities including New York, Paris, and London. Throughout his lifetime, he published a number of books of collected photography. On the secondary market, Avedon’s work has sold in excess of $1 million. Related Categories Richard Avedon Beatles.
Lithograph, Offset
1993 Richard Avedon 'An Autobiography' Book
By Richard Avedon
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Paper Size: 14.25 x 11.5 inches ( 36.195 x 29.21 cm ) Image Size: 14.25 x 11.5 inches ( 36.195 x 29.21 cm ) Framed: NoCondition: A-: Near Mint, very light signs of handling Addition...
Offset
Beatles Poster (set of 4)
By Richard Avedon
Located in Washington , DC, DC
In addition to working within the world of fashion, Richard Avedon lent his photographic talents to civil rights and rock posters. In 1967, Avedon shot fou...
Lithograph, Paper
The Beatles, Richard Avedon
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
This portfolio of four individual offset lithographs in color are from the first printing dating to 1967. It is the age and condition that makes this such a rare find, each print me...
Lithograph, Offset
The Beatles, Richard Avedon
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
This portfolio of four individual offset lithographs in color are from the first printing dating to 1967. It is the age and condition that makes this such a rare find, each print me...
Lithograph, Offset
The Beatles, Richard Avedon
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
This portfolio of four individual offset lithographs in color are from the first printing dating to 1967. It is the age and condition that makes this such a rare find, each print me...
Lithograph, Offset
Sold
H 24.5 in W 35.75 in
Richard Avedon-Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent-24.5" x 35.75"-Poster-1981
By Richard Avedon
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This photograph is of Natassja Kinski, the German-born model and actress. Kinski gained acclaim both through her active acting career, as well as through her relationship with Roman ...
Offset
The Beatles, Richard Avedon
By Richard Avedon
Located in New York, NY
This portfolio of four individual offset lithographs in color are from the first printing dating to 1967. It is the age and condition that makes this such a rare find, each print me...
Lithograph, Offset