Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon, born in New York in 1923 and died in 2004, started doing photography from a young age. When he was 12, he joined the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) camera club, as well as when he was in high school, he attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx where he worked on his school's literary magazine The Magpie and was named Poet Laureate of New York City High Schools in 1941. In 1942, he joined the Photographer’s Mate Second Class in the U.S. Merchant Marine during WWII, and his job was to identify photographs. After serving for two years he became a professional photographer and left the military. He was first rejected from Harper’s Bazaar but after photographed models in the streets, nightclubs, or other uncommon places for photography. The uniqueness of each of his photos is what really stood out to viewers and in magazines about his photography.