Richard Avedon was born in 1923. From 1944 to 1950 he studied photography at the design laboratory of the New School of Social Research in New York. He has worked as a staff photographer for many widely read magazines, such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. He has also served as a visual consultant for Paramount Studios. Avedon is well known for his photographs of all types of people, from the famous, as epitomized by Marilyn Monroe, to the fashion model, to the everyday person. His photographs are frequently close-ups that capture the spirit and mood of his subject. He is also noted for his ability to capture the sensual in his photographs. Avedon has numerous collections of photographs… including In the American West and An Autobiography. Avedon also merged photography and literature in his two of his collections-Observations, with text by Truman Capote, and Nothing Personal, with text by James Baldwin.