Richard Avedon is a photographer who was brought up in a lecture during our first year at university. Similar to Andrew Weekes, I appreciate the high contrast and gritty feel to his photos. The way he has edited and lit the photos bring out all of the details in his subject’s faces – their freckles and eyes look incredible. The style of photo that he creates is something that I would like to attempt as I believe they are more interesting than just a standard, coloured portrait.

His American West photo collection are my favourite as the people are all incredibly interesting to look at and have different facial features that are accentuated with his style. The photos initially caused an outrage when he first released them as America was used to ‘the West’ being romanticised, however his photos documented what ‘the West’ was really like. The awkward poses are more life-like instead of the silly poses you find in editorial magazines which is also why they stand out to me.

This is my favourite photo from the collection. The freckles on the girl’s face are the most interesting part – I love how this style brings them out. Blue eyes also seem to look better in black and white with high contrast and lighting so I will try and take some photos of people with blue eyes when I take my photos.

The clothing is what caught my eye in this photo – I love how the way the photo has been edited makes the checks more distinct. I like the usage of patterned clothing in this photo and also like how the man looks a bit more scruffy and dirty – it looks more interesting than him being plain and boring.

The white background works well and I think I may attempt some medium shots with a white background like this photo collection.