Kimberly Creswell
Hasn't followed the traditional path to becoming a painter and
About Alexey Brodovitch
In 1934, Bazaar editor Carmel Snow attended an Art Directors Club of New York exhibition curated by 36-year-old graphic designer Alexey Brodovitch. Snow called it a revelation, describing "pages that bled beautifully, cropped photographs, typography and design that were bold and arresting." She immediately offered Brodovitch a job as Bazaar's art director. Throughout his career at the magazine, Brodovitch, a Russian émigré (by way of Paris), revolutionized magazine design. With his directive "Astonish me," he inspired some of the greatest artists of the 20th century (including protégés Irving Penn, Hiro, and, of course, Richard Avedon) to create legendary images.
Brodovitch's signature use of white space, his innovation of Bazaar's iconic Didot logo, and the cinematic quality that his obsessive cropping brought to layouts (not even the work of Man Ray and Henri Cartier-Bresson was safe from his busy scissors) compelled Truman Capote to write, "What Dom Pérignon was to champagne ... so [Brodovitch] has been to ... photographic design and editorial layout." Sadly, Brodovitch's personal life was less triumphant. Plagued by alcoholism, he left Bazaar in 1958 and eventually moved to the south of France, where he died in 1971. However, his genius lives on.
Text source: Harper's Bazaar