Richard Avedon

Avedon was an American photographer who lived from 1923-2004. He was best known for his work in the fashion industry. Avedon wanted his models to convey emotion and movement, which was a departure from the norms of motionless fashion photography. Avedon is well known for his high fashion photography, including photos for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, and  his large-scale character-revealing portraits.
(Bio info from biography.com)

Here are a couple pictures that I liked and I thought these few show what Avedon was so well known for...
 



 This is a portrait of singer Marian Anderson. I love the way he captured the look of her singing and the movement of her hair. This photo is a beautiful step up from a ordinary portrait.

 

 The way Avedon added motion and expression to fashion photography made it much more interesting than the normal motionless, still fashion photos.

 

 I really like this photo. The contrast of explosiveness and effortlessness is beautiful. Her facial expression is very soft and effortless which is a nice contrast to the explosion of hair behind her.

 

 Avedon did such a great job of capturing motion when photographing fashion.

 
 
 

A little something to put a smile on your face

Although I came across this set of photos a while back (and many people have seen them), I thought another mention wouldn't hurt. The photographer is Seth Casteel. He is an award-winning photographer. He is a lifestyle pet photographer. Casteel has published books and collaborated with many other artists and publishers. His main focus seems to be dogs, but he has photographs of everything from dogs and cats to wild animals.
His website: Seth Casteel's Little Friends Photo, URL: littlefriendsphoto.com

In his underwater dog pictures he really managed to capture the "exclamation point" of the dogs' entry into the water.