Richard Avedon with his mother Anna
Born in New York on May 15, 1923, to Russian Jewish immigrants. The Avedon family business was in women's fashion, and shortly before he was born, Richard Avedon's Father and uncles established Avedon's Fifth Avenue across from the New York Public Library.
Advertisement for Avedon department store
March 15, 1922, Vogue
Avedon Building
448 Fifth Avenue, next to the New York Public Library. After the family lost the building after declaring bankruptcy during the Great Depression, the building stood until it was torn down in the 1950s.
The Record, New Jersey, Monday, January 15, 1940
Started publishing poems in syndicated newspapers when he was 16.
The Magpie
Spring 1940
The Magpie Magazine staff
James Baldwin and others, Dewitt Clinton High School, Bronx, New York, 1941
Richard Avedon, "Not England"
“Lines written in despair over the death of a friend, and the future of humanity. October 1940”
Nathan J. Averick
Merchant Marine, July 1943
Heaving Line
November 1942
The Mast
January 1944
The Mast
January 1944, interior
Bijou Barrington in a Salymil Junior dress by Milgrim
This is the first recorded Richard Avedon advertisement. It appeared in Vogue, August 1944.
Bijou Barrington in a b. weinstein advertisement in Town & Country
September, 1944
Bijou Barrington for Peck and Peck, Harper's Bazaar
September, 1944
Bijou Barrington in a b. weinstein advertisment appearing in Vogue
September, 1944
Richard Avedon is on the masthead of The Editor's Guest Book for Harper's Bazaar
November, 1945
Junior Bazaar Magazine, cover featuring Beth Wilson
November, 1945
Junior Bazaar
June, 1946
Natálie Nickerson and Richard Avedon on the cover of Harper's Bazaar
January, 1947
Paris: The New Fashion is Traveling Fast, featuring Renée in Dior's "Palais de Glace" suit
October, 1947
Harper's Bazaar
March, 1948
Cover photograph of Ann Murray for Harper's Bazaar
July, 1948
Cover of Dorian Leigh for Harper's Bazaar
December, 1949
Cover of Barbara Mullen for Harper's Bazaar
April, 1950
Cover featuring Barbara Mullen for Harper's Bazaar
June, 1951
Cover featuring Dovima for Harper's Bazaar
February, 1952
Cover featuring Audrey Hepburn, Harper's Bazaar
October, 1956
Audrey Hepburn on the set of "Funny Face"
Opera Garnier, Place de l’Opera, Paris, August, 1956
Retrospective at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C
Richard Avedon and Laura Kanelous installing at the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C., 1962
Early Years