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France Through the Lens of Richard Avedon

Audrey Hepburn, Mel Ferrer, and Buster Keaton, in “Paris Pursuit” for Harper’s Bazaar, Paris, August 9, 1959. Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

It was Christian Dior who gave the late photographer Richard Avedon his big break. In 1948, Avedon flew to Paris to photograph Dior’s iconic New Look. As a photographer with a penchant for capturing street-style fashion, Avedon decided to approach shooting the New Look in a revolutionary way. Breaking away from the stoic and posed fashion photography of the time, Avedon shot his models in motion, photographing them lounging at cafés and wandering around the streets of Paris.

Avedon’s France: Old World New Look, available now from Abrams, celebrates Avedon’s relationship with the country that continuously inspired him. The tome highlights some of the most iconic images Avedon shot in France, from portraiture of French sitters, shots of Audrey Hepburn roaming the streets of Paris, and work for various other fashion campaigns or French magazines from as early as the ‘40s to the mid-’90s.

Click ahead to see pictures of Audrey Hepburn on the set of Funny Face in Paris, Mel Ferrer posed in a photo booth, stunning shots of the French ballerina Sylvie Guillem, Truman Capote, and Avedon’s other odes to France.

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Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Margot McKendry and China Machado with members of the French Press, Paris Studio, August 24, 1961.

Dresses by Lanvin-Castillo and Heim. 

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Catherine Deneuve, actress, Los Angeles, September 22, 1968.

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Avedon Photomatic Photograph of Mel Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn, and Truman Capote, 1957.

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Audrey Hepburn, Mel Ferrer, and Buster Keaton, in “Paris Pursuit” for Harper’s Bazaar, Paris, August 9, 1959.

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Jeanne Moreau, actor, Paris, 1962.

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, actors, New York, October 23, 1959.

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Sylvie Guillem, dancer, New York, March 11, 1991.

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Audrey Hepburn, actress, on the set of Funny Face, Paris, 1956.

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Marguerite Duras, writer, Paris, May 21, 1993.

Photo: Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation

Avedon’s France: Old World New Look published by Abrams. 

Imagine Roaming ’50s Parisian Streets Shooting French Stars