Richard Avedon and Jun Ropé
Richard Avedon and the Jun Ropé Campaign: Glamour, Chaos, and the Photographer in Frame
In the early 1970s, legendary fashion photographer Richard Avedon directed—and starred in—a remarkable advertising campaign for the Japanese fashion line Jun Ropé. The result is a series of print and TV ads that feel equal parts theater, studio documentary, and fever dream.
These ads are unusual not just for their stylized chaos or implied scandal (which, by today’s standards, still reads as electric), but for their decision to place the photographer himself—Avedon—in the center of the spectacle. Most fashion campaigns erase the maker, presenting images as self-evident aesthetic facts. This one pulls the curtain back.
Instead of hiding the apparatus of fashion production, Avedon puts it on display: we see lights, assistants, backdrops, and the frenzied choreography of a studio at work. The glamour of the Jun Ropé brand is inseparable from the bohemian energy of the creative labor behind it.
Watch the campaign: Richard Avedon for Jun Ropé (YouTube)
The Photographer In The Frame
This rare campaign offers a glimpse into a transitional moment in fashion photography—when the image-maker begins to be recognized not just as a technician or stylist, but as a public figure with artistic authority.
Avedon’s presence here is not just cameo; it’s concept. The photographer’s frantic movements and charisma become part of the brand’s message. This shift parallels broader cultural changes in the 1970s, as fashion photography increasingly acknowledged its own artifice and creative authorship.
It also reflects the changing role of photographers within the image economy: no longer just behind the camera, but part of the image itself—both maker and icon.
Further Reading
Here are a few key resources on Avedon and the visual history of fashion photography:
The Richard Avedon Foundation – A rich archive of exhibitions, essays, and project documentation
Avedon: Something Personal by Norma Stevens and Steven M. L. Aronson (2017) – A memoir-biography hybrid
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline: Fashion Photography
Fashion Photography: The Story in 180 Pictures by Eugenie Shinkle (2021)
Photography and Culture Journal – A critical scholarly resource that often publishes on commercial and fashion imagery