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In Milan, the Royal Palace exhibits the works of the famous American photographer Richard Avedon (1923-2004).
It all started for Avedon when he celebrated his tenth birthday in New York with his father’s gift, a Kodak Brownie. He then produced his first portrait, that of the neighbor of his grandparents.
As early as 1944, when he returned from Pearl Harbor as an assistant photographer for the American army, he began his collaboration with the fashion world by working for Harpers’s Bazaar, Life and Vogue.
His unique style revolutionizes the world of image by bringing a new vision of celebrities and their models.
He makes his subjects move, thus giving them a real humanity unlike what was done at the time with the poses of inexpressive statuettes in glossy paper.
Thanks to the finesse of his gaze and the immensity of his talent, he knows how to give life to all his portraits and the spectator can thus discover the soul of the actors, singers and politicians whom he immortalizes in black and white in his striking large formats of reality and humanity.
Richard Avedon quickly became an icon and the film «Funny Face» in 1957 pays tribute to him by presenting him in the guise of Fred Astaire alongside the unforgettable Audrey Hepburn who embodies his love, the model Suzy Parker.
Richard Avedon, Carmen (homage to Munkácsi), coat by Cardin, Place François-Premier, Paris, August 1957
© The Richard Avedon Foundation