If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Richard Avedon, it can be difficult to grasp how groundbreaking he was after growing up surrounded by images that bear his influence. The legendary photographer, who shot everything from decades’ worth of Vogue covers to portraits of royalty and photojournalism about the Vietnam War, almost singlehandedly redefined our idea of what a stationary image could convey. By inviting models, dancers, and movie stars to dance, jump, and play around his studio while he took pictures, he developed a distinct knack for capturing motion in still shots that immortalize a gleeful millisecond. Even if that sounds like standard procedure for today’s magazine covers, Avedon is as responsible as anyone for turning the once-frigid mediums of portrait and fashion photography into something as vibrant and alive as the American century that he documented.
Ron Howard’s latest documentary, “Avedon,” aims to place the man responsible for some of America’s most iconic photos in front of the camera for a change. Through a combination of archival footage, interviews with surviving contemporaries, and many, many photos, the film attempts to get to the bottom of Avedon’s distinct knack for capturing celebrities at their very best. Howard dives into multiple facets of his personality: Avedon was at once an effortlessly cool fashionista who inspired confidence in everyone he met, a workaholic whose endless quest for perfect images alienated his family, and a Rick Rubin-esque figure who allowed his magical people skills to compensate for his lack of technical abilities. But more than anything, he’s presented as a man who was most comfortable in this world when he was observing others through a lens. He was addicted to judging everyone he met based on their fitness to be photographed. If he could figure out a way to portray you, you’d have a friend for life. If you weren’t suitable for a portrait, he saw no reason for further association.
Documentaries about visual artists — particularly dead ones who can’t give new interviews — are often a tricky medium. Devote too much time to their paintings or photos and you’re left with little more than a slideshow, but don’t show enough of them and audiences will wonder why you didn’t. But Avedon, an artist who became a legend by making motionless images feel vibrant and frenetic, lends himself uniquely well to the format. As Howard and editor Andrew Morreale flip through his seemingly endless body of work, the cinematic quality of his images are placed on full display. The film strikes an elegant balance between providing context for his innovations and letting the work do the talking, resulting in one of the more entertaining art documentaries that this critic has ever seen.
While the topic is not explicitly broached in the film, it’s hard to watch without confronting the melancholic feeling that we won’t ever see a Richard Avedon again. His greatest artistic strength was capturing motion and vibrancy in static images, and so many of his photos became iconic because he was documenting people to whom we received such limited access. Today, it’s not hard to imagine that his shoots would all be released as behind-the-scenes YouTube videos that were instantly cut into Reels. By watching every moment of his famous subjects frolicking around the studio, we’d all be deprived of the chance to cherish the best seconds of it.
That context ensures that “Avedon” is much more than an exploration of a complex genius. It’s also a postmortem for a distinct era of American culture that won’t ever reappear. Richard Avedon was uniquely blessed to be a transcendent magazine photographer during decades when we understood the entire world through magazines. He spent decades practicing his art form before the current definition of “content” entered our vernacular, and left this world just before the changing media landscape would forever devalue the way he expressed himself.
The film, then, exists at the intersection of the permanent and the ephemeral. Richard Avedon’s photos will live on forever, even if the way that we create and follow our icons has dramatically changed. But even if we’re not reading magazines anymore, there’s no denying that our consumption of images is as healthy as ever. In that sense, there’s a little bit of Richard Avedon in everything we touch.
Grade: B+
“Avedon” premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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