Inspiration

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon’s photography conveys a profound exploration of identity and emotions, his intent or the message that he was trying to convey was not only to capture

the similarities between subjects but also reveal through the emotions and complexities. From the quote that Avedon had said, he claimed that “A portrait is not just a likeness. When an emotion or fact becomes a photograph, it transforms into a personal opinion.” This demonstrated his belief through photography, which shows what the photographer’s point of view and his understanding through capturing images. Furthermore, from the scene of Avedon’s work, it often shows an reflection to the cultural and social issues of specific period of time. Avedon captured important events such as civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. He used his art to shed light on social issues and the experiences.

His portraits shows on both celebrities and daily people, by using different techniques he can reflect on the harsh realities behind various images.

In addition, Avedon’s images demonstrated various photography style that was marked by several unique techniques and common elements. One of the style was by showing simple backgrounds. Avedon often used plain white backgrounds for his photos, this can help him to remove distractions and highlight on his subjects’ expressions and emotions, which can helps to generate a sense of closeness, allowing the audience to build up deeper connections with the image. Another style that Avedon had used inside his work is by showing unique compositions. Avedon’s portraits often include close-ups shots that crops the subject’s face in a dramatic way. This could create a feeling for the audience to make them feel like they are intruding into the subject’s personal space, which creates a feeling of closeness and vulnerability, generating a relationship between the audience and the subject.

The reason why I select Richard Avedon as the photographer to research was because of his unique display style for photos, Avedon demonstrates a creative way of taking portraits and telling complex stories through photography, his images inspire me to look deeper into the emotions of my subjects and think about the wider concepts in the story of the scene, which supported me to consider more through my theme of images. During the process of capturing photos, I will be trying to use more simple backgrounds to emphasize my subject, I will also portray more on the facial expression and the action from the character, which will help to show the emotion of the image.