A Retrospective: Richard Avedon Fashion Photographs at ICP

May 15–September 6, 2009
Avedon Fashion 1944–2000

Richard Avedon (1923–2004) revolutionized fashion photography starting in the post-World War II era and redefined the role of the fashion photographer. Anticipating many of the cultural cross-fertilizations that have occurred between high art, commercial art, fashion, advertising, and pop culture in the last twenty years, he created spirited, imaginative photographs that showed fashion and the modern woman in a new light. He shook up the chilly, static formulas of the fashion photograph and by 1950 was the most imitated American editorial photographer. Injecting a forthright, American energy into a business that had been dominated by Europeans, Avedon's stylistic innovations continue to influence photographers around the world.

The exhibition at the International Center of Photography will be the most comprehensive exploration to date of Avedon's fashion photography during his long career at Harper's Bazaar,Vogue, The New Yorker, and beyond. The exhibition will feature more than 200 works by Richard Avedon, spanning his entire career, and will include vintage prints, contact sheets, magazine layouts, and archival material.


Source: International Center for Photography