Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923–October 1, 2004) was an American photographer. Avedon was able to take his early success in fashion photography and expand it into the realm of fine art.

Books by Richard Avedon

• Observations, 1959: A collaborative book with Truman Capote containing portraits of many famous people of the twentieth century, including Pablo Picasso, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Mae West.
• Nothing Personal, 1964: A collaborative book with James Baldwin.
• Alice in Wonderland, 1973
• Portraits, 1976
• Portraits 1947-1977, 1978
• In the American West, 1985
• An Autobiography, 1993: Contains 50 years of Avedon's photographs, 284 images ranging from mental patients to famous celebrities including Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhol, and even his own mother and father. The pictures are not arranged chronologically. The order of the pictures is used to tell a life story.
• Evidence, 1994: Over 600 images that encompass Avedon's fashion photographs, portraiture, journalistic shots, sketches, snapshots, and contact sheets. However, despite containing many images, the book focuses more on the essays and text about Avedon instead of being fully based on visuals.
• The Sixties, 1999: Contains images of many famous figures such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Twiggy, and rock bands like Aerosmith in the nude.
• Made in France, 2001: A retrospective of Avedon's fashion portraiture from the 1950s. The book is expensive due to the images being printed on tritone plates.
• Richard Avedon Portraits 2002: 50 black and white images of celebrities and subjects from his In The American West project. Its release coincided with an exhibition of the work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.