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Richard Avedon Portraits
A selection of works by the influential portrait photographer, packaged in an accordion-folding folio, spans his entire career and demonstrates his signature technique of portraying his subject without extraneous detail and against white backgrounds.
64 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
About the author
Richard Avedon
181 books46 followersPeople note fashion photography and stark portraits of Richard Avedon, an American.
Richard Avedon captured ideals of celebrity and beauty in the 20th and early 21st centuries to helped to establish a contemporary art form. Avedon developed a distinct, iconic style. While his contemporaries focused on single moments or composed formal images, his lighting and minimalist white backdrops drew the viewer to the intimate, emotive power of the expression of the subject.
Richard Avedon studied philosophy at Columbia University, New York, and served in the department of the merchant marines of the United States before studying with Alexey Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research.
From 1945, he worked and revolutionized the craft even as he honed his aesthetic to 1965. He worked in magazines from Harper's Bazaar and Vogue to Life and Look. Later, he moved into journalism and the art world. His subjects included pop stars, models, musicians, writers, artists, workers, political activists, soldiers, victims of Vietnam War, politicians, and his family.
Curator Paul Roth observes: “In an Avedon portrait, the face maps an intersection: It is a place where the world outside the photograph meets the world inside the mind.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York presented solo exhibitions in 1978 and 2002. The Whitney Museum of Art in New York in 1994 mounted major retrospective. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek, Denmark, mounted his works in 2007, and the exhibit traveled to Milan, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, and San Francisco through 2009.
Richard Avedon captured ideals of celebrity and beauty in the 20th and early 21st centuries to helped to establish a contemporary art form. Avedon developed a distinct, iconic style. While his contemporaries focused on single moments or composed formal images, his lighting and minimalist white backdrops drew the viewer to the intimate, emotive power of the expression of the subject.
Richard Avedon studied philosophy at Columbia University, New York, and served in the department of the merchant marines of the United States before studying with Alexey Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research.
From 1945, he worked and revolutionized the craft even as he honed his aesthetic to 1965. He worked in magazines from Harper's Bazaar and Vogue to Life and Look. Later, he moved into journalism and the art world. His subjects included pop stars, models, musicians, writers, artists, workers, political activists, soldiers, victims of Vietnam War, politicians, and his family.
Curator Paul Roth observes: “In an Avedon portrait, the face maps an intersection: It is a place where the world outside the photograph meets the world inside the mind.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York presented solo exhibitions in 1978 and 2002. The Whitney Museum of Art in New York in 1994 mounted major retrospective. The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebaek, Denmark, mounted his works in 2007, and the exhibit traveled to Milan, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, and San Francisco through 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 21, 2021
After a semi-interesting essay, we move on to what really counts - the photos.
Some of the more recognizable faces were - Gabriel García Márquez, Truman Capote, John Ford, Groucho Marx, Jean Renoir, Carson McCullers, Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, and Jorge Luis Borges. Very striking and great quality images.
October 4, 2014
Richard Avedon has a preternatural gift for revealing some odd facet of his portrait subjects in every photo he takes. Every page in this book is like its own section of an autobiography, each wrinkle in the subject's face reveals a wealth of experience, of deep sorrows or joys, of a deep respect for the chaotic tumults of life. The most fascinating portrait is the fold-out of Andy Warhol's Factory, a bizarre, detached parade of debauchery. It tries to subvert every societal norm it can in personalities so purposely contrived to seem wholly unnatural. These strange insights and the beautiful grey tones of his photos prove why he's, by far, the world's greatest portrait photographer.
November 30, 2008
This book is published in a novel accordian format. So you can open the book on one side and there is text with a few pictures, but when you open it from the other side and it's only photographs. You could potentially open the whole book across your living room floor and see all the photographs at once. Pretty cool. I only gave it three stars because, although Richard Avedon's portrait photography is genius, I prefer Leibovitz style of putting her subjects in a setting that tell a story. Avedon's trademark pure white background is, well, what it is.
March 22, 2013
Perfect !
June 26, 2021
There is beauty in this slim book of portraiture, although most of the poses and framing are not conventional. Avedon is my favorite, similar to a painter, he has a unique way of indenting his style into the photo.
His subjects range from authors, to poets, lawyers and politicians. Some of them look not particularly pleased to be posing, others look indifferent, and a few have let the camera into their being.
Highly recommended.
His subjects range from authors, to poets, lawyers and politicians. Some of them look not particularly pleased to be posing, others look indifferent, and a few have let the camera into their being.
Highly recommended.
March 6, 2007
The photos are amazing, obviously, but the crazy accordion binding is something I could do without.
December 19, 2014
Wonderful.
June 1, 2025
Truman Capote mentioned Avedon in an interview, so had to check him out. He was photographer to Hollywood and high society: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Marilynne Monroe, Truman Capote, Alger Hiss, Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol and the Factory, best dressed women and drifters. His portraits feature a white background and pensive faces.
November 20, 2023
i got to see this in it's accordion style which was super cool
January 29, 2026
Es impresionante como captura la esencia de las personas
June 20, 2022
i highly recommended it, it's a wonderful book, i love it, really good book
July 20, 2008
While I enjoyed the introduction's discussion of the unavoidable photographer and the subject collaboration... the subject looks to present how he perceives himself and the photographer looks to show what he sees. And I do enjoy seeing the pictures of these mostly famous people stripped down to just themselves with little or no hint of their accomplishments or failures. But, overall, I won't remember the majority of these images tomorrow no matter how much intellectual stuff can be written on Avedon's method and reasons... and that's how I judge a photograph.
December 31, 2007
Strange that he started out as a fashion photographer. I've seen some exhibits of his [non-fashion-photog] work, and it is jaw-dropping.
November 15, 2007
learn more about potrait
June 14, 2009
purchased for my library - Friday June 12th
August 11, 2012
Una meraviglia.
January 6, 2014
Excellent photographs. I enjoyed the way the photographer captured the character of each person.
March 7, 2015
So good!!
"My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph" - Richard Avedon
"My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph" - Richard Avedon
April 2, 2015
Masterpiece. The reason I became a Photographer.
September 12, 2015
Terrific Portraits
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews