HIS WORK WAS CANDID, spontaneous and beautifully kinetic. Richard Avedon poured his own energy into photographs, creating heightened and whimsical moments. Penelope Tree and Jean Shrimpton, in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, were seen leaping, twirling and kicking in midair, bringing a childlike sense to the magazines, and creating new, ingenuous versions of the glamorous . . .
His portraits however, were vastly different from his fashion photography, since they depicted his subjects — whether John F. Kennedy and Jackie O, or Marilyn Monroe — with a particular sensitivity to their beauty, flaws and vulnerability. What Avedon did, is to capture a version of each person, that stripped them of their Hollywood or political facade, and instead showed raw human emotions.
“Real people MOVE, they bear with them the element of time. It is this FOURTH DIMENSION of people that I try to capture in a photograph.”
– Richard Avedon.
[Images: 1 – Ideal Studio Blog, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 15 – Pinterest, 4 – NPR, 6 – Cool and Chic, 9 – Dressing Vintage, 10 – Naomie Austin, 11 – Kamera Work, 12 – Faded and Blurred, 13 – The Celebrity, 14 – Rare Audrey Hepburn]
