Richard Avedon was important for transforming both fashion photography and portraiture. He moved fashion photography out of the studio, taking models to streets, nightclubs, circuses, beaches, and other unexpected settings. This approach added movement, spontaneity, and narrative to his images, as seen in Dovima with Elephants (1955). In the photo the American model wears a Dior evening gown and elegantly poses among elephants as if in command of them. For his portraits, Avedon created a sense of drama by using a stark, white background and eliciting a frontal, confrontational pose. In eliminating elaborate settings and props, Avedon focused attention on his subjects themselves—their gestures, clothing, expressions, and physical appearance. He thus often managed to capture the person behind the celebrity or stereotype, as in his photos of Marilyn Monroe or of miners, ranch hands, oil-field workers, and others in the series In the American West (1979–84).
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