In 1944, Richard Avedon was discovered by the art director at Harper's Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch, and his career as a groundbreaking fashion photographer was launched. By the 1960s, he had begun to photograph an even wider range of subjects, from Civil Rights activists and Vietnam War protestors to the political, intellectual, and artistic elite. Fascinated by the power of portraits made with a large-format view camera, Avedon soon developed a distinctive style that involved placing his sitters against a stark white background and photographing them frontally. This image of the photographer Robert Frank, whose book The Americans influenced a whole generation of photographers, and his wife, the artist June Leaf, has all the unflinching authenticity and intimacy of Avedon's best work.

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