Richard Avedon

During his teenage years he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, for which he received psychiatric treatment.

In 1944, he married Dorcas Marie Nowel. The couple did not have any children and divorced in 1949.

In 1951, he married Evelyn Franklin, with whom he had a son.

Richard Avedon was born in New York City to a retail businessman, Jacob Israel Avedon and Anna Avedon. It is believed that it was his mother who inculcated in him a love for art and fashion.

By the time he turned 12, his interest in photography grew by leaps and in order to pursue his interest, he became a member of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association Camera Club. Soon, he began taking photographs using a Kodak Box Brownie. His first muse was his younger sister, Louise.

Academically, he attained his basic education from DeWitt Clinton High School in Bedford Park, Bronx. It was at high school that he developed a fancy for poetry and started penning some. In 1941, he was named, ‘Poet Laureate of New York City High Schools’.

He enrolled at the Columbia University in 1941. However, his growing passion for photography and fashion led him to drop out of the university after his first year.

In 1942, he began his career as a photographer with Merchant Marines. He was appointed to take photographs of crewmen for the purpose of identification.

In 1944, he was employed as an advertisement photographer for a department store. However, impressed by his work, Alexey Brodovitch, who was serving as the art director for the fashion magazine ‘Harper’s Bazaar’, recruited him.

From 1944 until 1950, he studied the technique and detail of photography from Brodovitch, at the latter’s Design Laboratory at the New School for Social Research.

In 1946, he founded his own studio and began to work with various magazines including ‘Vogue’ and ‘Life’. Soon he was appointed as the chief photographer for ‘Harper’s Bazaar’.

In 1952, he was appointed as the staff editor and chief photographer of the ‘Theatre Arts Magazine’. The following year he took a famous picture of Italian socialite, Marella Agnelli.

His magnum opus project, ‘In The American West’ was a collection of photographs of the working class people. This project was a turning point in his career.

The famous ‘Versace’ campaign ‘Pile of Beautiful People’, photographed by him, brought him immense fame and recognition in the fashion world.