Jerry Avenaim
Encyclopedia
Jerry Avenaim is an American
photographer best known for his fashion
and celebrity
images.
and went to Paris, France during the Suez Canal
crisis
in the 1950s and later emigrated to the United States
where he was born. As a teenager, Avenaim got his first camera
— an all-manual 35mm Exakta
that his father had brought over from Paris. He was raised in Chicago
, Illinois
.
in New York
. When he began to work independently in 1985 his first assignment was a foreign edition Vogue
cover of supermodel
Cindy Crawford
. Later he lived and worked out of Milan
for Italian Vogue under the direction of Editor in Chief
Franca Sozzani
.
Avenaim resides in Los Angeles, California
, and his work contains a focus on portrait photography
of higher-end clientele. Avenaim has photographed fashion and celebrity for magazines including Vogue
, GQ
, Newsweek
, and Glamour
. His work has appeared on the covers of Vogue, Newsweek, People
, TV Guide
, and Detour. Avenaim's celebrity portraits include Halle Berry
, Helen Hunt
, James Caan, Mel Gibson
, Phil McGraw
, Angela Bassett
, Patricia Arquette
, Brooke Shields
, and Julia Roberts
. Avenaim's photo of Halle Berry appeared on the cover of the People (magazine)
Yearbook issue as Picture of the Year in January 2003.
In 2003 Avenaim produced a piece for ZugaPhoto.TV discussing "techniques for photographing Halle Berry". Avenaim appeared on the ZugaPhoto.TV DVD How to Take Great Pictures which was released in 2004. In 2003, Avenaim was at work on a compilation book project of nude portraits titled Naked Truth. In 2004 Avenaim led a live photoshoot and workshop at the PhotoImaging & Design Expo (PIDE) in San Diego, California
, and at the 2005 PIDE conference he gave a two-part seminar on his celebrity portrait work and lighting techniques.
J. Walter Thompson agency chose Avenaim to photograph country music
singer Toby Keith
for their 2005 advertising campaign for Ford trucks and sport utility vehicles. Avenaim's photograph of Donald Trump
appears on the cover of the 2005 book Donald Trump: Master Apprentice by Gwenda Blair. Naked Truth was not yet published in 2006, and at the time Avenaim was also working on a book project titled LUMINOSITY: The Fine Art of Photographing Celebrities. Photographer Rolando Gomez
cited a lighting technique he learned from Avenaim in his 2006 book Garage Glamour: Digital Nude and Beauty Photography Made Simple. Avenaim is sponsored as an "Elite Photographer" by Lexar
Media. And a "Master Photographer" by Mamiya
cameras and Profoto
lighting.
and Talk show
s including Dr. Phil. More recently Avenaim has appeared as himself on America's Next Top Model
, Germany's Next Topmodel and with Kimora Lee Simmons
on her show Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer best known for his fashion
Fashion photography
Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Elle...
and celebrity
Celebrity photography
Celebrity photography is a subset of photojournalism. Its subject matter is celebrities in the arts, sports and sometimes politics. There are three types of celebrity photography used by magazines and newspapers. They are:...
images.
Early life
Avenaim's parents left EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and went to Paris, France during the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
crisis
Suez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
in the 1950s and later emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where he was born. As a teenager, Avenaim got his first camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
— an all-manual 35mm Exakta
Exakta
The Exakta is a pioneer brand camera produced by the Ihagee Kamerawerk in Dresden, Germany, founded as the Industrie und Handels-Gesellschaft mbH, in 1912.- Characteristics :Highlights of Exakta cameras include:...
that his father had brought over from Paris. He was raised in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.
Early work
At age 19, Avenaim started his career as assistant to photographer Patrick DemarchelierPatrick Demarchelier
Patrick Demarchelier is a French fashion photographer.-Life:Born near Paris in 1943 to a modest family, he spent his childhood in Le Havre with his mother and four brothers. For his seventeenth birthday, his stepfather bought him his first Eastman Kodak camera...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. When he began to work independently in 1985 his first assignment was a foreign edition Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
cover of supermodel
Supermodel
The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
Cindy Crawford
Cindy Crawford
Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford is an American model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, Crawford has adorned hundreds of magazine covers throughout her career. She was named #3 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90s...
. Later he lived and worked out of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
for Italian Vogue under the direction of Editor in Chief
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
Franca Sozzani
Franca Sozzani
Franca Sozzani is an Italian journalist and the editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia since 1988.Franca has been at the forefront of Fashion since the beginning of her career. Sozzani started her career at Vogue Bambini and directed legendary publications LEI since 1980 and PER LUI since 1982 before...
.
Commercial photography
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, and his work contains a focus on portrait photography
Portrait photography
Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people , in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject...
of higher-end clientele. Avenaim has photographed fashion and celebrity for magazines including Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, GQ
GQ (magazine)
GQ is a monthly men's magazine focusing on fashion, style, and culture for men, through articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, travel, sports, technology, and books...
, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, and Glamour
Glamour (magazine)
Glamour is a women's magazine published by Condé Nast Publications. Founded in 1939 in the United States, it was originally called Glamour of Hollywood....
. His work has appeared on the covers of Vogue, Newsweek, People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
, TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, and Detour. Avenaim's celebrity portraits include Halle Berry
Halle Berry
Halle Berry is an American actress and a former fashion model. Berry received an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG, and an NAACP Image Award for Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and won an Academy Award for Best Actress and was nominated for a BAFTA Award in 2001 for her performance in Monster's Ball, becoming...
, Helen Hunt
Helen Hunt
Helen Elizabeth Hunt is an American actress, film director, and screenwriter. She starred in the sitcom Mad About You for seven years, before being cast in the romantic comedy As Good as It Gets...
, James Caan, Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
, Phil McGraw
Phil McGraw
Phillip Calvin McGraw best known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality, author, former psychologist, and the host of the television show Dr. Phil, which debuted in 2002...
, Angela Bassett
Angela Bassett
Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. She has become well known for her biographical film roles portraying real life women in African American culture, including singer Tina Turner in the motion picture What's Love Got to Do with It, as well as Betty Shabazz in the films Malcolm X and...
, Patricia Arquette
Patricia Arquette
Patricia T. Arquette is an American actress and director. She played the lead character in the supernatural drama series Medium for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series....
, Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
, and Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
. Avenaim's photo of Halle Berry appeared on the cover of the People (magazine)
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
Yearbook issue as Picture of the Year in January 2003.
In 2003 Avenaim produced a piece for ZugaPhoto.TV discussing "techniques for photographing Halle Berry". Avenaim appeared on the ZugaPhoto.TV DVD How to Take Great Pictures which was released in 2004. In 2003, Avenaim was at work on a compilation book project of nude portraits titled Naked Truth. In 2004 Avenaim led a live photoshoot and workshop at the PhotoImaging & Design Expo (PIDE) in San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, and at the 2005 PIDE conference he gave a two-part seminar on his celebrity portrait work and lighting techniques.
J. Walter Thompson agency chose Avenaim to photograph country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
singer Toby Keith
Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...
for their 2005 advertising campaign for Ford trucks and sport utility vehicles. Avenaim's photograph of Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
appears on the cover of the 2005 book Donald Trump: Master Apprentice by Gwenda Blair. Naked Truth was not yet published in 2006, and at the time Avenaim was also working on a book project titled LUMINOSITY: The Fine Art of Photographing Celebrities. Photographer Rolando Gomez
Rolando Gomez
Rolando Gomez is an American freelance photographer and author of photographic how-to books.His work has appeared in Parade Magazine, Rangefinder Magazine, D-Pixx Magazine, Peterson's 4-Wheel Drive, Stars and Stripes, Army Times, Airman, Soldiers, Playboy.com, Netscape.com, Studio Photography &...
cited a lighting technique he learned from Avenaim in his 2006 book Garage Glamour: Digital Nude and Beauty Photography Made Simple. Avenaim is sponsored as an "Elite Photographer" by Lexar
Lexar
Lexar Media, Inc. is an American manufacturer of digital media products based in Fremont, CA. Products manufactured by Lexar include SD cards, Memory Sticks, keydrives, CompactFlash cards and card readers. Lexar's Memory Stick Duos also have versions adapted for the PSP which includes a version of...
Media. And a "Master Photographer" by Mamiya
Mamiya
is a Japanese company that today manufactures high-end cameras and other related photographic and optical equipment. With headquarters in Tokyo, it has two manufacturing plants and a workforce of over 200 people...
cameras and Profoto
Profoto
Profoto is a photographic equipment maker that produces studio lighting systems mainly for photography purposes. In 2010, the company expanded its business into the movie/video lighting industry. Profoto was founded in 1968 by Eckhard Heine and Conny Dufgran...
lighting.
Television appearances
Jerry Avenaim has appeared on numerous Reality televisionReality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
and Talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
s including Dr. Phil. More recently Avenaim has appeared as himself on America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....
, Germany's Next Topmodel and with Kimora Lee Simmons
Kimora Lee Simmons
Kimora Lee Simmons is an American fashion model, and former president and Creative Director for Phat Fashions.-Early life:...
on her show Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane
Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane
Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane is an American reality series that airs on the Style Network. The show premiered on the Style Network on August 5, 2007...
.
Recognition and awards
- American Photographer New Faces 1988
- Kodak Icon Award 2005