Irving Penn

Soon after I started my first photographic course, Recreational Photography, I heard about Irving Penn.  During a presentation I saw examples of some of his photographs and whilst down London with the photo group, we visited the National Portrait Gallery, where there was an Irving Penn exhibition.

Irving is considered a master of portraits, nudes, still life and editorial photography.

Irving Penn was born in Plainfield, a small town across the Hudson river from Manhattan, New Jersey USA, 0n 16th June 1917.

At 17, Irving attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, (now the University of the Arts) where he majored in design.  Here he took part in art director Alexey Brodovitch's 'Design Laboratory' classes.  Irving left the school in 1938.

Between 1937 and 1938 Irving spent two summer vacations interning at Harper's Bazaar in New York assisting Brodovitch, who was then the art director. Several of Penn's drawings were published in the magazine, the money from which was used to buy his first camera, a Rolleiflex, which would become his career-staple.  Irving began taking photographs on the streets of New York.

Between 1938 and 1940 Irving worked as a freelance designer in New York.  Later he worked as a commercial artist at Saks Fifth Avenue devising advertising design strategies, first as assistant to Brodovitch and then independently. Through Brodovitch, was introduced to Vogue's then Assistant Art Director, Alexander Liberman. 

In 1943, Liberman, now Art Director of Vogue, invited Penn to join the staff to suggest ideas for covers. They worked out of the Vogue studio at the Graybar building, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York, and pictures by Penn began appearing in the magazine. He photographed the October 1943 Vogue cover, his first colour photograph and also the first still-life cover in the history of the magazine.

Over the next 70 years since, Irving has covered photography in portraiture, fashion, nudes, still life and ethnography (where he took photographs of people from different cultures (source Dictionary.com)).

Irving also created a set of portraits which he called small trades:

 

These depict men from various trades in their typical workwear with the tools of their trade.

Irving, like Richard Avedon, brought new life, emotions and  meanings into fashion photography.  But unlike Richard, Irving worked in a studio (which he would take with him around the world) whereas Richard worked in the street.

Sadly, in 2009 Irving Penn passed away leaving us with a new perspective on photography.

What I like about Irving’s work, is how he has concentrated on the subject in the portrait.  He does not always close in on the subjects face, which to me shows variety in his work.  The backgrounds are plain or mottled concentrating the viewer’s attention on the subject.

Other photographs by Irving Penn are shown below: 

Sources of information:

Professional Photographer, National Portrait Gallery, Irvingpenn.com, Digital Photo Pro

 

Evaluation of Images

Irving Penn's work is on the whole straight forward, where the focus is on the subject of the portrait, without unnecessary props or distractions, taking the view's eyes away from the real subject.  Although the portrait of the lady smoking (column two row ten of the images above) is made more interesting by shooting the portrait through the half full bottle, adding to the interest of the portrait.

Irving has taken portraits at all perspectives; head, head and shoulders, half, three quarter and full length, with plain or mottled backgrounds.

The portrait of Alfred Hitchcock (column 1 row two) is one of his more famous portraits with a tightly cropped portrait and very clear skin texture, lit from the left side of Alfred.  This lighting technique hides the right side of the face in the shadows, and is apt for Alfred who is famous for writing his books.  Alfred's pose with the tilted hat and his collar hiding part his face adds to the mysterious image of the great writer.  The shapes formed by this pose and the textures add more interest to this portrait.

Irving has used texture in many of his portraits, in particular in the portrait of the gentleman smoking (column 2 row 2) where he has captured the texture of the man's face, his thin hair and even the smoke being exhaled from the cigar.

Irving has used the full tonal range in his portraits, with some exceptions (column one and two row five) where Irving has produced two portraits, one with some mid tones (column two row five) but with a very contrasting portrait, and the other (column one row five) with almost no mid tones producing a very powerful almost pure black and white portrait where the subject is facing forwards towards the camera, but looking to her right, beneath her veil.

In one portrait (column one row seven) Irving has captured his subject with his eyes closed, glasses in his right hand which is also supporting his face, whilst either listening to something or deep in thought.  This to me is a powerful image, where although the subject's eyes are closed, the portrait gets across to the viewer the man's concentration and attention to detail.

Like David Bailey, his approach to photographing men and women is often quite different with harsher lighting used for men and softer lighting used for women.