Mentor

         

                                                 

Richard Avedon was born on May 15th, 1923 in New York City. He came to his calling very early in life both in terms of photography as his medium and portraiture as his major genre. He began his photographic career at age 10 with a neighbor of his grandparents, the pianist and composer Sergey Rachmaninov. As a teenager, he attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he was Editor-in-Chief of Magpie, DeWitt Clinton's literary and art magazine with American Novelist and civil rights activist James Baldwin as its literary editor.

At the age of 19 after a brief period of attending Columbia University, he joined the Merchant Marine where he received professional training in photography, taking identification pictures of the crewmen with a Rolleiflex camera that was given to him bu his father. Avedon continued with photography upon his return at The Design Laboratory at the New School for Social Research where Alexey Brodovitch the art director of Harper's Bazaar was an instructor. Avedon also developed his skills photographing his sister Louise who was two years younger than himself

                             

When he returned home in 1944, he instantly had an employment as a photographer for a certain department store. At the beginning, he earned his living mainly through various works in advertising. Within the two years, he had been working on that job, a director from Harper's Bazaar spotted him and he began to work for the magazine. Later on, he also did photography jobs for Vogue, Look and many other related magazines. He also became popular for his stylistic and ground-breaking fashion portfolio that was frequently set in dramatic and amusing locales. During these times he realized however that his real passion was portrait photography and its capability to articulate its subjects.

As one of the most reputable fashion photographers, Avedon was able to modernize portraiture and fashion photography to instantly create a particular aesthetic that was able to influence countless other photographers. His signature technique was the outsized format studio portraits of his subjects which include writers, politicians, and artists. He utilizes desolate white backgrounds and life-sizing printing which makes his viewers feel as if they are in with a bond to the image which is often a substantial and almost provoking experience. Richard Avedon has the ability to generate visual tension and astonish his viewer through unanticipated contrasts.

For my mentor assignment, I picked Richard Avedon because I loved his portraits and the ways he demonstrates fashion since they helped define America's image of style, beauty, and culture. I picked a few trending outfits and accessories including off shoulder tops and dresses, bomber jackets, striped shirts, chokers, and vintage sunglasses. Overall, this assignment was really fun since we were playing dress up and taking photos in a different style.

Works Cited

"Home." The Richard Avedon Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2017. 

"Richard Avedon." 64 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2017. 

"Richard Avedon." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 20 Aug. 2014. Web. 17 June 2017.