Richard Avedon chronicled the latter half of the twentieth century with powerful portraits of artists, intellectuals, political figures, and events of the time. In a career spanning six decades, he turned fashion photography into an art form and reinvented the genre of photographic portraiture. His work is a vital part of the canon of the history of photography, and his donations of his work to the Smithsonian Institution have created a significant legacy of some of his most important images, including those in this book.
Shannon Thomas Perich is an associate curator in the Photographic History Collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where she has worked for more than ten years. She holds a master's degree in museum studies from George Washington University as well as a B.F.A. in photography from the University of Arizona.
