Richard Avedon - Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1944, Avedon married Dorcas Marie Nowell (1925—2011); she became the model and actress Doe Avedon; they divorced after five years of marriage. In 1951, he married Evelyn Franklin; she died on March 13, 2004. Their marriage produced one son, John Avedon, an author and authority on Tibet.

In 1970, Avedon purchased a former carriage house on the Upper East Side that would serve as both his studio and his apartment. In the late 1970s, he purchased a four-bedroom house on a 7.5-acre estate in Montauk, nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and a nature preserve; in 1998, he put the place on the market for $10 million and sold it for almost $9 million in 2000.

On October 1, 2004, Avedon died of a brain hemorrhage in San Antonio, Texas, while shooting an assignment for The New Yorker. At the time of his death, he was also working on a new project titled Democracy to focus on the run-up to the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

Avedon is survived by his son John, and his four grandchildren William, Matthew, Michael and Caroline.

Read more about this topic:  Richard Avedon

Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:

    I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can to save the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    No civilization ... would ever have been possible without a framework of stability, to provide the wherein for the flux of change. Foremost among the stabilizing factors, more enduring than customs, manners and traditions, are the legal systems that regulate our life in the world and our daily affairs with each other.
    Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)