Name of artist:
Richard Avedon
Dates of artist's life:
May 15, 1923 - October 1, 2004
1. Personal Background:
His education consisted of Public School 6, The New School Welcome Center, Columbia University, and DeWitt Clinton High School. He was born and lived in New York City. He enjoyed his time as a 12 year old boy taking pictures of the clothes in his father's store. Also at 12 years old, he joined the YMHA (Young Man's Hebrew Association) Camera Club. He started off working for Merchant Marines, where he took identification photos. Then, he moved on to working with fashion photography for Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue.
2. Style:
He was known most for photography. He mostly did fashion and portrait photography. His images were in black and white. A lot of his images featured people moving in some way. Richard Avedon was best known for his work in the fashion world and his minimalist, large scale, revealing portraits.
3. Philosophy:
His photos were very personalized to the model. He always demanded that his models move and be expressive which was out of the norm for a fashion photographer. He wanted to show the motion of his model. He also wanted to express an emotion through his images for the viewer. He made a theatrical show of humans in his photos, which can be strange and/or meaning full.
4. Influences:
RIchard Avedon has influenced me in my work by showing me movment. I have started taking more photos of people moving since the start of this project. at first I didn't love the movement because it just seemed blurry but it grew on me. He also influenced my work by showing high contrast B&W photos. I used to do more black and white photos, and I think I'll start doing them more often now.
5. Sources:
Richard Avedon's Images |
My Images |
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Successful |
Succeed |
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American Protester |
Protest |
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Portrait |
Self Reflection |
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1873 AIGA Medalist |
Future Past |
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In the American West |
To the West |
6. Compare and Contrast:
1. I chose this image to recreate because I like the intense contrast of the image. When recreating the image, in order to get the shadow of the glasses on the cheeks, I had to position a light at a specific angle to create the desired effect. to create the bold contrast, I simply increased contrast and lower brightness a bit to intensify the shadows.
2. I chose this image to recreate because I like the intense stare into the camera. when recreating this image I did not have a plain background to shoot on, so I had to photoshop the background out and create a mask so I could create the light-darker grey background. Once I had finished all other edits in photoshop I noticed the image was to smooth so I added texture with filters, and this allowed me to achieve a similar style to the original photo.
3. I chose this image to recreate because it seemed so different from the rest because the face was seen through a mirror as a pose to directly head on. I immediately encountered one issue when recreating this image because I could not find a similar sized mirror, so the whole face was shown instead of just the eyes and nose. I also had to exchange the my raw photo's background for a plain black background and 'add noise' with the filters.
4. I chose this image because I wanted to take on the challenge of movement. It was indeed difficult. Once I figured out how to create a long exposure using my camera, the main difficulty was trying to capture the image so the hands are blurred but keeping the head and body in focus. This took a few trial and errors but the efforts resulted in my photo after some Photoshop edits and filters.
5. I chose this image to recreate because it seemed plain but intriguing with emotion and deeper meaning. This photo was easy enough to set up and take however, as I said before I did not have a plain background to work with so I had to edit it out and replace it with white. After I fixed the background I made it look more rough and old by adding noise using the filters.
2. I chose this image to recreate because I like the intense stare into the camera. when recreating this image I did not have a plain background to shoot on, so I had to photoshop the background out and create a mask so I could create the light-darker grey background. Once I had finished all other edits in photoshop I noticed the image was to smooth so I added texture with filters, and this allowed me to achieve a similar style to the original photo.
3. I chose this image to recreate because it seemed so different from the rest because the face was seen through a mirror as a pose to directly head on. I immediately encountered one issue when recreating this image because I could not find a similar sized mirror, so the whole face was shown instead of just the eyes and nose. I also had to exchange the my raw photo's background for a plain black background and 'add noise' with the filters.
4. I chose this image because I wanted to take on the challenge of movement. It was indeed difficult. Once I figured out how to create a long exposure using my camera, the main difficulty was trying to capture the image so the hands are blurred but keeping the head and body in focus. This took a few trial and errors but the efforts resulted in my photo after some Photoshop edits and filters.
5. I chose this image to recreate because it seemed plain but intriguing with emotion and deeper meaning. This photo was easy enough to set up and take however, as I said before I did not have a plain background to work with so I had to edit it out and replace it with white. After I fixed the background I made it look more rough and old by adding noise using the filters.
Personal Artist Statement:
1: |
In this image the high contrast creates a focus on her eyes. Her eyes (although dark) look kind and gentle. Her appearance makes her look confident and wise, as well as accomplished. Her faint smile/smirk could show how confident but collected she is. And of course her kind eyes can allow us to assume that she isn't a show off but instead a possible mentor.
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2: |
This image was my personal favorite of the images I recreated. I think I like it so much because of the vivid almost piercing calm of it. The picture seems to show that she is intent and focused. She looks as though she will do anything to accomplish her goal even thought she is only using one eye. The covered eye could represent a set back or disadvantage.
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3: |
I like how this image turned out, especially with the lighting. The lighting makes this image capture your attention. The lighting is brightest on the mirror which makes it seem like the light is coming only or mostly from the mirror. The light brightest on the mirror pulls your attention to her face in the mirror as a pose to the side of her face. This images makes her look like she is pondering something while looking at herself in the mirror but she does not look to be judging herself or looks which radiates a sense of self confidence.
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4: |
In this image her eyes appear to have a more shadowed look which draws focus to them on top of the fact that they are the most focused part of the image. The movement in this image suggests a sense of high energy though her face does not show it. So maybe instead of high energy it is showing a sense of motivation which is displayed in her facial expression. The high contrast among other adjustments I made to this image allow that unfocused hands to look like hands and not smudges. The attention of the hands makes them the most interesting part of this photo.
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5: |
This image has a sort of hazy cloud over it. The contrast is a little lower than the other images which allows this cloudy feeling to come over it. The grayed feeling makes the image feel relaxed but sad due to the resulting darkening of the overall image. She looks like a innocent but hurt girl. She seems like she could have had a trouble past or a difficult story to tell.
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