The work of Richard Avedon is definitely something that changed forever the history of fashion and commercial photography.
Before Avedon, leading magazines such as Vogue and Harper Bazar's were imposing an art deco style to fashion.
In the '20s, photographers such as Horst P. Horst are those who direct the market; despite the great fantasy and the visual power of their images, the models are frozen in a statuesque and classical pose. The research of beauty these artists are carrying out takes to an idealized woman who's just beautiful, sometimes sterile, as a statue could be, not an human being.
When Avedon, after the 2nd world war, arrives in Paris he changes everything. Really young he starts to work for Harper Bazar's, creating photos were the model are no more posing still, they are moving, jumping, living: the haute couture he's photographing seems to fit every occasion, from the theatre to the circus.
The emotivity of his photos is strong, it's true, and it is what the market is looking for: fresh air after the war.
After seeing all his photos what came in my mind is "time is passing": this seems to be the core of his work. If we have a look at his progress we can see it, passing from his jumping photos to his portrait period, to his western period, to the photos of his father dying.
I think death is something that scared a lot Avedon so he managed with the camera to freeze the time, to save his life.
Life is energy and that's what he gives with his photos. He started as a reportage photographer but than he realized that he wanted to create rather than be a viewer. He's never still. Passion and power is what we can feel from his photos.
The other great changing he brought into fashion photography is the idea of a set to tell a story.
When he starts to work for Vogue he becomes more interested in portraiture: the energy and surprise of movement is discovered in the face, something that he has always been - even unconsciously(this makes me think of his first assignment as photographer for The Merchant Marines)- interested in, and something that doesn't need a set to tell a story. More minimal but always effective.
Also thanks to Avedon we can now benefit of a wide idea of fashion which moves to art and vice versa.
Alberto Oliva, Norberto Angeletti (2007). In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine.
Linda Watson (2007). Vogue Fashion: Over 100 years of Style by Decade and Designer, in association with Vogue.
Robin Derrick (2008). Vogue Covers: On Fashion's Front Page.
John Lahr (2008). Performance: Richard Avedon.
Laura Wilson (2010). Avedon at Work: In the American West.
Maria Morris Hambourg (2006). Richard Avedon Portraits.
Carol Squiers (2010). Avedon Fashion 1944-2000.
