Photographer Richard Avedon in front of a portrait from his In the American West series

I recently came across a PBS American Masters documentary on Richard Avedon, posted in its entirety on YouTube:

There is often speculation that on some level all of Avedon's photos are self-portraits — that he was always trying to get to some truth about himself by photographing other people. I think because of that, there is something about his work, taken as a whole, that to me represents life so fully — the good and the bad, the ugliness and the promise of beauty, the reality and the aspiration — the mix of it all. It kind of kills me to think about it, his work means so much to me.

This documentary is a good survey — part 1 of 9 is above [or if you can't see it, click here to watch] and parts 2–9 are after the jump: