Irving Penn (Do It Again!)

I've really enjoyed researching the photography of Irving Penn (although it is wearing off a bit now) and wanted to visit the National Portrait Gallery after seeing Rankin review the current exhibition of his work which is displayed there until 6 June 2010.

This weekend presented the opportunity when me, and my new best friends, visited London on a snap and grab photo trip. There is a plethora of images on the internet, but I am particularly drawn to his meticulous graphic style perhaps because of my garden design interest and background.

The exhibition was of around 120 silver and platinum prints spanning five decades of work. He died at the age of 92 in October 2009 and had worked throughout his life, hence the 200,000 plus images in Google. He was particularly interested in the longevity of his prints and used complicated dark room techniques to ensure the integrity of his photographs. The archive on show at the NPG certainly reflected that. The images were crisp and clear.

Throughout the length of his career he appears to hit on winning formulas, which work incredibly well with some subjects and less so with others. The tableaux of dancers is beautifully executed.

But the same imagery doesn't work for The Grateful Dead, who are frozen in boredom.

I looked in detail at many of the prints and agreed with what had been said that they work well in any size from thumbnail to full size print, this is particularly noticeable when the search results are shown.

Go On Try It

Like so many successful photographers, he'd originally set out to be a painter, but, after a year in Mexico he became disatisfied with his results and returned to fashion photography working for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. He gained a reputation meticulous attention to detail, Shaker like restraint in his style and perfectionism. He became known reverently as 'Mr Penn.'

The set of nudes he produced in 1949 to 50 were strangely out of character. The set of heavy, bleached out, women were the antithesis of all of his magazine work. Remembering that he was married to Lisa Fossagrives, a slim sophisticated model who was the subject of many of his photos, it is still difficult to understand this period although I can see something of their sculptural qualities.

Earthly Bodies

Lisa Fonssagrives Penn

He was roundly slated for these at the time, although thirty years later they were exhibited and acclaimed, he had achieved international recognition by then and no one was to shout of the 'Emporer's New Clothes.'

I was particularly intrigued by the portrait of Alfred Hitchcock, it really works for me as a picture, but I find it disturbing. Sitting on the trademark upturned carpet, he looks at one with himself but at odds with the world. Rankin drew attention to the fact he looks posed on a toilet but unaware and unembarrased.

I took this picture in London shortly after the exhibition, seeing the roundness of his back and outline, heavy weight supported on elbows.

" I invite the subject to the camera. I begin to search for an attitude, and then begin to expose film. I follow my plan through to what may be a dead end or to success..... I have found that for me it is fatal to change directions radically in the middle of a sitting.
I lose the subject."
Irving Penn.