Richard Avedon - Lighting Technique

Does anyone have any insight on how Richard Avedon lit his black and

white group portraits?

Look carefully: You'll see that there was no single consistent way or lighting technique or

tool he used for the "white background" photos -- which were done over a fifty year

period of time. Generically he used either indirect sunlight --as predominates i nthe "in

theAmerican west " series, or when using strobes, using very large soft boxes or

"jumbrellas" . Some ofthe more recent work -the "Democracy 2004" project uses all sorts

of lighting in different images.

 

iHis inspiration for doing portraits in this manner -- flat, sometimes harsh lighting &

isolating the subject from any context by using a white background, came from his

experience doing ID photos for the U S navy during WWII. The lighting & 'aesthetic' effect

is secondary to the emotional effect he was trying to create -- the sense of who the

person behind the public mask is when their guard is completely down. but of coursethat

is just a conceit and the photos are more akin to theater.

 

For what is worth, I think he is one of the very, very few artists whose portrait work

transcends the medium he was workign in.

Some of Avedon's signature style is in the lighting, but some happens in the printing. Study the catchlights in the eyes to get a sense of the lighting. As Ellis said, it varies. If you have access to back issues of the New Yorker over the last few years, there are a lot of great, more recent Avedon photos in there. The documentary "Darkness & Light" is definitely worth watching, too.

There is also a a feature in the Digital Journalist, "Laura Wilson's

Avedon at Work in the American West"

 

 

http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0406/av_intro.html

This has been discussed -- and archived -- many times here. Use the photo.net

'Search' facility.