Richard Avedon

Today in my History of Photography class, we watched a video on photographer Richard Avedon (www.richardavedon.com) who was well-known for his fashion photography, his portraits as well as commercial photography for Vogue, Harpar's Bazaar, The New Yorker and ads for companies like Kenneth Cole, Barely There, Levi's and Dior.

Here are some quotes from Richard that I really like.

My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph.

Sometimes I think all my pictures are just pictures of me. My concern is... the human predicament; only what I consider the human predicament may simply be my own.

If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.

It's just so strange to me that anyone would ever think that a work of art shouldn't be disturbing, or shouldn't be invasive. I mean, that's the property of a work of art, that's the arena of a work of art - it's to disturb, it's to make you think, it's to make you feel. If my work didn't disturb people from time to time, it would be a failure in my eyes - it's meant to disturb, in a positive way.

I think he's now one of my favorite photographers.