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In the early decades of the last century, photography was just breaking into the world of fine portraiture and fashion. Most photographers were content with the drab backdrops of the studio, but a few broke out of the studio's claustrophobic corners and sought out a more animated backdrop. One of these was Martin Munkácsi who made his name as a man who made fashion and portraits in motion.


Martin Munkácsi started his career in photography in his native Hungary. He mostly preferred sports photography, being particularly adept at capturing motion in the frame, something that was difficult to do back then with the cumbersome large-format cameras. His skill would bring him to Germany where he continued his particular flair for action pictures.

By this time, as he traveled to Italy, Turkey and Egypt on assignment, Munkácsi was already ingraining in himself the photographic style for which he would be known for in the decades to come.


While Munkácsi was already a success in the world of sports photography, he became even more successful in the world of portraiture when he fled Nazi-led Germany in the 1930s. While other fashion photographers at that time were still figuring out the intricacies of indoor lighting and composition (like the highly regarded Edward Steichen), Munkácsi almost immediately set out for the great outdoors in the employ of Harper's Bazaar. His outdoor fashion images had a hint of the spontaneity and "out there" quality that would be commonplace in fashion magazines in the 1960s and 1970s.

He also took formal portraits of the leading Hollywood stars of his time, with the same drive he had for his fashion photographs (much to the discomfort of some of the famous subjects that sat for him). By the 1940s, he became the highest-paid photographer of his generation.


Munkácsi's style eventually fell out favor, but his influence can be seen in dozens of other well-known photographers. The great fashion photographer Richard Avedon said that Munkácsi "...brought a taste for happiness and honesty and a love of women to what was, before him, a joyless, lying art." Avedon's style (and even a few of his fashion photographs) clearly pays homage to his predecessor. It's no wonder then that Munkácsi is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Fashion Photography".

Another great photographer (if not the greatest), Henri Cartier-Bresson, commenting on one image said, ""I saw a photograph of three black children running into the sea, and I must say that it is that very photograph which was for me the spark that set fire to the fireworks. It is only that one photograph which influenced me. There is in that image such intensity, spontaneity, such a joy of life, such a prodigy, that I am still dazzled by it even today." His statement is as true this day as it was when he first said it.


Unfortunately, Martin Munkácsi doesn't have an official website, but there are a lot of fine examples of his portraits in motion over at the PBase website. If you want to the hardcopy option, there's the appropriately titled MARTIN MUNKACSI, Style in Motion: Munkacsi Photographs of the '20s, '30s, and '40s (First Edition), and Aperture 128: Martin Munkacsi.

Avedon started out as a freelance photographer but was later picked up by Harper's Bazaar, becoming the chief photographer at the magazine. Inspired by photographer Martin Munkacsi who combined photojournalism with fashion photography, Avedon took his models out on the streets, giving his photography a certain energy lacking in the four corners of his studio.


This was a step forward from the works of Edward Steichen and Cecil Beaton who primarily worked in the controlled environment of the photo studio. In fashion photography's infancy, designers and photographers worked to create a distinctive setting inside a confined space. With Avedon's work however, he sought to bring the photos alive through the vibrant and sometimes uncontrollable nature of the outside.


Even with his studio work, Avedon sought to create something new and inspired in his photography. He would capture his models in a whole variety of expressions and poses; laughing, frowning, dancing and even jumping, his fashion photography leaned towards charming out the life in his subjects.

That kind of out-of-the-box imagination certainly paid off dividends as one of his photographs, Dovima with elephants (the first image in this post), fetched a price of $1.151 million at an auction last year, making it one of the most expensive photographs in the world.


Avedon's talent for striking photographs also extended to his portraiture work. From time to time, he would be commissioned to take the portraits of celebrities and politicians on assignment or as part of his own personal projects. In many of his portraiture works, he would use a plain white or grey background, allowing the viewer to focus squarely on the subject.

Among his notable portrait works is his series on The Kennedy Family which he did for Harper's Bazaar. The resulting photographs framed the famous family in a simple, somber and sometimes intimate manner, something rarely seen during that time. His most famous portrait series centered on the ordinary people of the western United States; Avedon spent more than five years photographing cowboys, drifters and gamblers and the resulting portraits were collected in the highly praised book In the American West.


Of course, as with any high profile photographer, Avedon's works weren't always without controversy. Take for example the double portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor below. Avedon recounts that in order to capture the couple in their now famous grimace, he told a lie about running over a dog in his taxi on his way over to the photo shoot. The Royal couple, both dog lovers, expressed their shock at his story and that's when Avedon clicked the shutter.

The photographer would become infamous for many other unflattering portraits, but he would defend his works saying that he wanted to capture the true character, or at least a different angle on his subjects, many of whom were artists and celebrities.


Avedon wasn't just a photographer; he was a restless artist who continuously sought to reinvent the medium. Even in his seventies and up to his death in 2004, he continued to work on many projects. His last one was to be on the presidential election at that time.


More of Richard Avedon's works can be found over at his official website. Among the many books available on his photography, Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 is a good collection of his editorial works. Many of his now famous portraits can be found in Performance: Richard Avedon. His seminal work documenting the American beauty of the west is collected in Avedon at Work: In the American West.