Richard AvedonRichard AvedonRichard Avedon |
Taylor WeatherfordTaylor WeatherfordTaylor Weatherford |
Name of Artist: Richard Avedon
Dates of Artist’s Life: Richard Avedon (1923–2004) 1. Personal Background: (5 sentences. Culture, nationality, schooling, important life events, etc.) Avedon was born in New York city into a family of Russian Jewish background. At age twelve he joined the YMHA camera club. After, He got interested in poetry and won a citywide award for high school students during his senior year at his high school called DeWitt Clinton. This was located right in the Bronx. In 1942 he joined the army forces and served as Photographer’s Mate Second Class in the Merchant Marine. Finally in 1945 he opened up his own studio later becoming Harper’s Bazaar magazines goto photographer. From 1965 to 1988 he began work with Vogue. 2. Style: (5 sentences. What visual characteristics does this artist’s work possess? If you can compare it to a painting or art history style please do.) Richard Avedon showed the models of expression like; smiling, laughing, and posed in action. Avedon got his ideas and inspiration from a photojournalist and fashion photographer named Martin Munkácsi. With the inspiration of Munkácsi, Avedon took pictures of models and fashions while in streets, in nightclubs and circus arenas, and in other unique locations. He made sure he showed life and personality all throughout his photography. Avedon did portraits of civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Julian Bond, and segregationists such as Alabama Governor George Wallace, and other people involved in the movements. 3. Philosophy: (5 sentences. What were the major ideas behind this artist’s work? Where they personal, political, social, etc. What were they trying to “say” with their photographs?) Richard Avedon is trying to portray emotion and raw character. He wanted to show how people live and how they feel just by looking at their body language and facial expression. He says that “Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me. My concern is… the human predicament; only what I consider the human predicament may simply be my own.” A trick that he said made him one of the best photographers ever was that he’d sit in the minds of the people he was photographing. He wanted to understand them and get them in thought to make the image more powerful. 4. Influences: (5 sentences. How has the photographer influenced you in your work?) Richard Avedon has influenced my work by showing me how I can make a simply photograph have so much meaning. I learned how to capture emotion, life, and thoughts by looking at his work. I also learned to like black and white photos because he was really big on that as well. The way he showed someone's life just by their eyes was something that influenced me in a major way. He4 always made sure he got to know the person well enough to be able to capture and more powerful picture and that's something I tried to do as well. 5. Sources: You need to include the 3 images, their title and their source (which may include a link). 1.http://c41.net/articles/remembering-richard-avedon/ (no title) 2.http://robertkleingallery.tumblr.com/post/82208847105/richard-avedon-vicomtesse-jacqueline-de-ribes-new (Vicomtesse Jacqueline de Ribes, New York, December, 1955) 3.https://emitscom.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/richard-avedon-most-of-his-famous-unique-photographs/ (June Leaf, sculptor, Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia, July 17, 1975) 6. Compare and Contrast: You will need to compare and contrast your final 3 images with the 3 images you choose by your photographer. Write about each piece (5 sentence. The first picture was the most difficult to take because his model showed body language that we just couldn't get quite right. Also my models hair wasn't the same or nearly as dark as hers. It was hard to get the right texture that Avedon displays. His model has this blank expression but its confusing to get right as well. We thought it would be easy but it wasn't. The second picture was the best one out of all to get. One thing that was still hard to get was the right texture of the photograph from the background. His model shows a blank fcae but she is still smiling slightly showing that there still is life within her. There was a lot of shadows coming from the light above us so I had to do a lot of erasing with this photo and add a gray tint to it to try and hide the shadows. The third picture was really hard to expose the facial expression his model shows, we couldn't quite get this right either. We couldn't tell if she was smiling, smiling, scared, or what. There wind blowing in the background in his and I tried to get that but it became too much and ruined the photo so I decided to leave that out. One thing we were able to do well was her body position. There was still a lot of lighting coming from the ceiling that I had to cover up the same way as I had done with the other photos. 7. Personal Artist Statement: Your images should tell a story. In 5 sentences tell me about your images. Use the Composition 101, Elements and Principles and 10 Rules of Photography vocabulary. These pictures were a little hard to frame correctly and get the right lighting from the background. I had to use an empty wall in my house to get the right contrast and texture for this photo. Something that was very easy to master with these photos was the expressions in the face and body language and that exactly what all these images show. That was something that I though I’d have issues with but it turned out to be very easy. I took the pictures in color and added the black and white filter. |