An icon in his own right, Avedon photographed celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon. But his most personal work depicted farmers and civil rights activists.
In Richard Avedon’s over 60-year career behind the camera, he became the pre-eminent fashion photographer and then one of the most famous photographic portraitist in the world.
More than 150 prominent figures have chosen a photograph they admire by Avedon, who died in 2004, for a large exhibition celebrating the centenary of the photographer’s birth. Avedon 100 is open through June 24 at Gagosian Gallery in New York.
Avedon 100 is intended to put a contemporary lens on the work of the artist who produced indelible images like Dovima with Elephants, Evening Dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, 1955—one of the most famous fashion images of the 20th century, made on assignment for Harper’s Bazaar and included in the new show.
Avedon's decades of editorial work, including long relationships with Vogue and the New Yorker, were interspersed with deeply personal projects that consumed him for years.
Avedon’s black-and-white portraits of cultural and political figures seem now like the definitive images of the subjects, from Francis Bacon and Stephen Sondheim to Henry Kissinger and Malcolm X.
Starting in 2011, powerhouse Gagosian began representing the Richard Avedon Foundation, established during the photographer’s lifetime as the repository of his images and his legacy, and the two entities teamed up to make Avedon 100.
By the end of his career, when Avedon was as famous as some of his subjects, those abilities may have been somewhat overshadowed by the other engine of his achievement: the galvanizing personality that got the world’s most powerful people to agree to sit for him.
All photographs are credited to The Richard Avedon Foundation
Cover Image: China Machado, suit by Ben Zuckerman, hair by Kenneth, New York, November 6, 1958
Photo Editor: Natalie Leonard
Produced by: Leah Latella