American born Avedon was a Fashion / documentary photographer who liked minimalism in his work, capturing the raw emotions of his subject he was sitting, revealing so much about them, rather than other more conventional portraits.
A moment that solidified his wanting to be a fashion photographer went as so: “One evening my father and I were walking down Fifth Avenue looking at the store windows,” he remembered. “In front of the Plaza Hotel, I saw a bald man with a camera posing a very beautiful woman against a tree. He lifted his head, adjusted her dress a little bit and took some photographs. Later, I saw the picture in Harper’s Bazaar. I didn’t understand why he’d taken her against that tree until I got to Paris a few years later: the tree in front of the Plaza had that same peeling bark you see all over the Champs-Elysees.” (biography.com, 2016)
His style of photography was essential humanity and showing vulnerability, showing the person, not the shield that they put up. Avedon was highly skilled in capturing that little moment where the person lets their guard down and loses their character that they are portraying, capturing their raw emotion. An example of this would be the iconic picture of Marilyn Monroe, where she lets her guard down and let’s go of the character of Marilyn that the media was used to seeing.
Avedon’s other works are highly dynamic and show a more high fashion aspect to them, showing a concept rather than a person, his work oozes a certain quality that I aspire to achieve through my work. To get some angular poses that are large and seem completely natural. An image that sticks out in my mind when I think of Avedon is the image of the man with bees, a stark white background, and a really pale man covered in bees creating a contrast between white and black. This image is a truly iconic piece of imagery, something that people have and will come across, an image that is really well shot and composed. The way the eyes connect with the camera and finally you is quite striking to see, I can imagine this image being blown up to be on a large wall and this figure would be imposing on you as you look at it, I feel it would be something special to see in person to see this figure stare into you, blank expression, covered in bees.
Leave a comment