Saturday, October 10, 2009

10/10/09 - Brittany Gates: Irving Penn



Irving Penn passed away on Wednesday at age 92, so I thought it was only fitting that I blog about him this week.

Penn's photography extended from commercial style portraiture, to conceptual still life. He was one of the first photographers to use a background. He even went through a period where he used two backgrounds to make a corner set to "close in" his models. He did this to free them from distractions and make them more accessible to his camera.

Besides his fashion portraits, Irving Penn was also famous for his still life photography. He is known for his cigarette butt still lifes and his frozen foods.

These are well known, not only for their subject matter, but for their great detail and clarity. Penn had an eye for lighting and it shows in his work.

He will be greatly missed, but his work lives on.

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