This Photographer Was Well-known for Snapping Celebrities Like Marilyn Monroe, However His Images of Vietnam War Victims and Coal Miners Revealed the Stunning Energy of Portraits

A brand new documentary about photographer Richard Avedon, directed by Ron Howard and debuting on the Cannes Film Festival, makes use of archival footage and modern interviews to weave the story of simply how far his affect extends

Michele Debczak

| Correspondent

May 18, 2026 2:46 p.m.

Even in case you haven’t heard the title Richard Avedon, you could acknowledge his work. The photographer produced a few of the most emblematic pictures of Twentieth-century America, capturing Hollywood icons and Vietnam War survivors alike. His life and legacy are the topic of a brand new documentary titled Avedon, which premiered on the Cannes Film Festival this month.

As Ron Howard tells Mia Galuppo of the Hollywood Reporter, this venture was years within the making. The director wove collectively archival footage and pictures with new interviews to inform the story of a photographer whose affect on American tradition usually outweighs his private fame.

“I had nothing but respect for the name Richard Avedon and the handful of images that I could ascribe to him, but no sense of the depth and reach of what he had done,” Howard says. “I could see that he wasn’t just taking photos of human beings as symbols or reflections. He was actually drawing out their inner self and finding ways to let that inform the photo, even if it was his commercial, glossy magazine work or advertising.”

Born in New York City in 1923, Avedon fell in love with pictures after becoming a member of his native Young Men’s Hebrew Association’s camera club at age 12. Less than a decade later, his first fashion photograph appeared in Harper’s Bazaar.

Sean Fennessey, movie author and cohost of the “Big Picture” podcast, shares his impression of the portion of the documentary protecting Avedon’s early profession by way of his Projections e-newsletter, writing, “In recounting his own origin story, Avedon explained how he developed his photographic style during his initial trip to Paris as a man in his 20s seeking purpose. The active, high-toned, hyper-elegant compositions he conjured with models in the city are now seen as form-setting, but at the time, he carefully choreographed each image to redefine glamour and style in one fell swoop. Looking back on it, he marveled at the sheer invention—he just made it all up and somehow it became the standard.”

His profession as a vogue and portrait photographer led him to some monumental moments and figures in American popular culture. He traveled to Kansas with Truman Capote to {photograph} the 2 accused killers the creator was researching for In Cold Blood. In 1980, he photographed Brooke Shields’ iconic Calvin Klein ad campaign. Other well-known movie star images in his credit embrace a portrait of Marilyn Monroe trying uncharacteristically candid and one among Charlie Chaplin miming satan horns.

Avedon took a novel strategy to vogue pictures by aiming to uncover the edges of his topics that had been usually hidden from the digital camera. While this fashion has been emulated numerous occasions since, it was groundbreaking for the time.

“In the early days, [my subjects] had an expectation of me that came out of fashion magazines. Now it’s like people delight in not being seen artificially,” he instructed artwork critic Kenneth Baker for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999. “I’ve simply used the camera to express what I see, and I don’t see retouched pictures and soft Stieglitz lighting. We live in neon and harsh light.”

His topics weren’t restricted to A-list film stars in comfy studios. He documented the ugly aftermath of battle, from the ruins in Paris following World War II to the napalm victims of Vietnam. His work additionally spotlighted the faces of the civil rights movement, state psychiatric hospital sufferers, and American coal miners. His images of the latter will quickly be on show as a part of an exhibit titled “Beneath the Surface” on the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

“I had no idea how much of his life he committed to social observation, to civil rights, to exploring the lesser-known corners in service of photo journalism,” Howard tells the Hollywood Reporter. “He’s using his cachet and stature to actually say something else and do more. I found that incredibly inspiring.”

Avedon died of a mind hemorrhage in 2004 whereas on task in Texas for the New Yorker. He was 81 years old.

Following its premiere at Cannes, Avedon is searching for distribution within the United States.