The great photographer Richard Avedon was known to New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik simply as Dick. Just as Avedon’s photos enabled a viewer to truly understand his subject—be it a powerful politician, gamine model, or poor farmhand—so too does Gopnik help readers understand Avedon. As the first photographer to join the magazine’s staff, Avedon, along with editor Tina Brown, transformed the magazine’s look, and more than 10 years of working together bred an intimacy between the photographer and writer. Gopnik’s admiration for Avedon was so deep that when he wrote Avedon’s obituary in 2004, he began, “To know Dick Avedon was to know the sun.” Gopnik will discuss Avedon’s life, photographs, legacy, and character and what it was like to live in his orbit.

GOPNIK SPEAKS AT 7 P.M. AT THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART, 500 17TH ST. NW. $25. (202) 639-1700.