Richard Avedon redefined portrait and fashion photography in the 20th century. In the 1940s Avedon burst onto the fashion scene, infusing his photographs with touches of realism and the fantastic. His images were among the first to replace the stiff poses of the past with energetic action scenes that commanded the pages of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue magazines from the mid — '40s through the 1980s. He took his models out of the studios and brought them to cafes and casinos, posing them with well-dressed escorts. His models nuzzled elephants, stood amongst circus performers, and leapt like gymnasts. As his career progressed, Avedon developped a deceptively simple studio portrait style, which he would continue throughout his life. With uncompromising directness, he portrayed his subjects against a white background, with no extraneous details to distract from the essential specificity of face, gaze, dress, and gesture. This challenging innovation, coupled with the artist's intense interest in his subjects and mastery of his craft, resulted in mesmerizing portraits, among them Marilyn Monroe, Anna Magnani, Suzy Parker, Tina Turner, Stephanie Seymour, and many more.

«We all perform. It's what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintentionally. It's a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we'd like to be.» --Richard Avedon, 1974 The preeminent stars and artists of the performing arts from the second half of the 20th century offered their greatest gifts—and, sometimes, their inner lives—to Richard Avedon. More than 200 are portrayed in Performance, many in photographs that have been rarely or never seen before. Of course, the great stars light the way: Hepburn and Chaplin, Monroe and Garland, Brando and Sinatra. But here too are the actors and comedians, pop stars and divas, musicians and dancers, artists in all mediums with public lives that were essentially performances, who stand at the pinnacle of our cultural achievement. The celebrated author and critic John Lahr offers an elegant assessment of Avedon’s achievement. Four supremely talented artists from the performing arts Mike Nichols, André Gregory, Mitsuko Uchida, and Twyla Tharp contribute lively and moving memoirs about their collaborations with Avedon.»

Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 encompasses seven decades of extraordinary images by Richard Avedon, the most influential fashion photographer of the 20th century.This comprehensive volume offers a definitive survey, from Avedon's groundbreaking early photographs for Harper's Bazaar through his constantly inventive contributions to Vogue, Egoiste, and The New Yorker. Each carefully selected image represents an artistic collaboration with significant models, stylists, and designers. Avedon Fashion accompanies the first major exhibition to survey this body of work, at the International Center of Photography in May 2009. With critical essays by Carol Squiers, curator at the ICP, and photography critic Vince Aletti, as well as an appreciation by photo-historian Philippe Garner, Avedon Fashion chronicles an astonishing record of photographic achievement.