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.