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 became his muse. Fashion came to Avedon in 1944, when Alexey Brodovitch, the art director at Harper’s Bazaar, endorsed some advertising photographs he’d taken for a department store. Success was quick and Avedon was soon a giant in the field. Ezra Pound, Marilyn Monroe, Rudolf Nureyev, the Beatles—Avedon celebrated their stature with signature panache and attention to detail. —Elena Clavarino