Norma Stevens was a copywriter and creative director in advertising when Richard Avedon wooed her to become his studio director in 1976. She collaborated with him on all his commercial, editorial, and fine-art projects and traveled the world with him for his ad campaigns and museum exhibitions. At his death, in 2004, she became the founding executive director of the Richard Avedon Foundation, which she led for five years.
She is a longtime board member of the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation.
Steven M. L. Aronson met Richard Avedon in 1969, and their paths continued to cross throughout Avedon's life. A former book editor and publisher, he is the author of Hype and the co-author of the Edgar Award-winning Savage Grace. He contributed the biographical section to the collector's edition of the work of the photographer Peter Beard.
His profiles, interviews, and articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, Vogue, New York, Esquire, The Village Voice, Architectural Digest, Poetry, Interview, and The Nation.