Richard Avedon’s first camera was a Kodak Box Brownie. He was 12 and he took it with him to a Young Men’s Hebrew Association Camera Club in New York. Throughout his early adulthood, he photographed his schizophrenic younger sister, Louise, who was his muse. Fashion came to Avedon in 1944, and soon enough he was shooting Ezra Pound, Marilyn Monroe, Rudolf Nureyev, and the Beatles, celebrating their stature with signature panache and attention to detail. By 1969, Avedon was burned out. Deciding to try something different, he bought a tripod-mounted camera and set to work making images on a larger scale. His subjects were members of Warhol’s Factory as well as the D.C. insiders running the Vietnam War. These huge works are now on the walls of the MET, where they celebrate the centennial of Avedon’s birth. —E.C.