Portraits of Richard Avedon

As we get set to celebrate Richard Avedon's Centennial on May 15, 2023, here are some portraits of the great man by other fine portrait photographers.

Richard Avedon by Irving Penn for Vogue, August 23, 1993

Richard Avedon by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1963

Richard Avedon with Jacques Henri & Florette Lartigue, by Yvette Troispoux, c. 1980

Richard Avedon & Audrey Hepburn in Paris. A great shot by Henry Wolf, 1959.

In 1948 Hermann Landshoff took a whole series of photos of the 25-year-old Richard Avedon, who worked for a time as his assistant. This is my favourite shot.

Fred Astaire & technical adviser Richard Avedon on the set of Stanley Donen's Funny Face, Tuileries Gardens, 1956. A marvellous photo by David Seymour.

Richard Avedon, Suzy Parker & Kathleen Daly on Park Avenue. Martha Holmes took this shot for a Life magazine feature, 1959.

Richard Avedon by Ernest Bachrach, 1960s

Richard Avedon by Jack Mitchell. He's planning hs retrospective exhibition at New York's Marlborough Gallery, photographed August 27, 1975.

Richard Avedon works with Marilyn Monroe in his studio during the making of Billy Wilder's "The Seven Year Itch". A great photo by Sam Shaw, from 1954.

Richard Avedon by Philippe Pache, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1992

Richard Avedon with a portrait of his father, 1974. A wonderful photo by Gideon Lewin for Interview magazine. Lewin was Avedon's assistant for sixteen years.

And finally, a self-portrait, Provo, Utah, August 20, 1980

Highly recommended: Philip Gefter's What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon, 2020

Richard Avedon album covers

Simon & Garfunkel's 1968 album Bookends features a portrait by Richard Avedon. Over the years the great photographer has been responsible for some great album covers.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Red Hot & Cool was recorded at the Basin Street East club in New York at three sessions in 1954 and 1955. Richard Avedon's favourite model (and mine), Suzy Parker, is wonderful here, connecting with Brubeck at the piano. Paul Desmond, Bob Bates & Joe Dodge are all there, even if they're out of focus.

The Yellow Shark, with the Ensemble Modern, 1993. This was Frank Zappa's last album; it was released a month before his death. One of Richard Avedon's greatest portraits.

Richard Avedon died in 2004. I'm not sure when this Mitsuko Uchida portrait was made, but this Beethoven album was released in 2006, so this is likely from late in Avedon's own career.

From 1960: Igor Stravinsky conducts The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky was photographed by all the greats over the years, but this shot by Richard Avedon is as good as any.

Lenny by Dick Avedon, 1976

Muddy Waters by Richard Avedon. Hard Again, 1977. What a great portrait!

Dexter Gordon by Richard Avedon, Gotham City, 1981. A wonderful shot on the back!

Two more great portraits by Richard Avedon, for Johnny Winter's Second Winter, from 1969.

In his 2021 book Mike Nichols: A Life, Mark Harris talks about Richard Avedon's first meeting with Nichols and his comedy partner Elaine May:

Avedon invited them to his Park Avenue apartment for a brainstorming session. Nichols and May walked in, sat down on what he described as “a big white couch covered in a field-of-poppies fabric,” and started batting ideas back and forth with him. “At the end of the visit,” Nichols said, “he put his arm around me and walked me to the elevator. He said, ‘I have the feeling we’re going to be friends for life.’”

One of their first projects together was this cover for An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May, from 1961.

And Avedon delivers an even better shot for the back cover:

In the following year, these three came up with another great cover, for Nichols and May Examine Doctors. They're obviously having fun!