Richard Avedon
Born in 1923 and died 2004, He was known for his great portrait work and his book In The American West.
Richard was the first photographer for The New Yorker and also shot for other publications like the Harper Bazaar and Vogue. He was known to the world as a portrait fashion photographer but id do some more photojournalist work with political events such as the Berlin Wall.
He was very fascinated by faces and the story they told and the complexity with each one. His motto when taking photos was NO. No meant for no props, no background. He wanted his portraits to be simple by using a white backdrop.
When he was younger he liked to collected well known peoples autographs. Its the same thing when photographs. He shot both medium and large format.
After he photographed his well know series he went back to the west and met up with a few of the people he photographed. (Another term for being photographed is sat in for)
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.
(a photograph is) The death of the moment.
Anything is an art if you do it at the level of an art.