Walking into the exhibit, I immediately felt a sense of gloominess and darkness. The entire exhibit was monochromatic and showed images of oil well fires and explosions. From all the paintings, you notice a lot of pain and despair. There were various images of the workers drenched in oil and still continuing to do their job which made me realize how hardworking they are.

One painting that stood out to me was an image of two men using an oil machine and it gave me a sense of patriotism. From what I read from the pamphlet and image descriptions, Saddam Hussein was blowing up oil wells as a way of revenge. To see people working together for a common goal made me realize how patriotic and proud us Americans are and it left a big impact on me.

Riley Matthew                                                                                                Irving Penn

5/8/17

When I walked into the centennial I first read and saw the shots of people in what seems to be a narrow corner. This narrowness exacerbated people’s natural physique (the analysis/preface written by the museum points out someone’s thin shoulders but big feet). This creates an element of perspective that people aren’t normally in but this photoshoot shows the unnatural tension created. I’ve seen a lot of photoshoots with seemingly random things intertwined and being reacted to by other subjects but there’s an easiness and simplicity connected with these shots. There is intrigue in natural human composition, all that is needed is to find ways, like a very sharp, acute angle, to show it off.

I also loved the sleekness of his work for Vogue. It encompasses words like “vogue” or “chic” and “fashionable” but not in a pretentious way. The clothing and the position of the women is just so strong you can follow it with your eyes. There’s a part in the museum where there are about 9 Vogue covers fitted together in a square and the negative space works well when positioned behind strong, fashion statements. I noticed the repetition of thin, white models but that may be little more than a sign of the times. Another sign of the times was the reoccurrence of cigarettes in these shoots. With the thin, white women, the black hats and attire, cigarettes and darting eyes I get the stereotypical French femme fatale character. I like it though.

The nudes are one of my favorite collections because of the rejection of attraction because I like those who dabble in taboo. These bodies seemed like works of art like how women should be seen, not wonders of sexual desires, so examining the unorthodox positions and apparent vastness of human body is great to behold. One of the pieces, a woman sitting down, a bit hunched, with a view of her back reminds me of pictures of mountains out in the Midwest. Grand, vast and telling.Irving Penn

The show, I thought was diverse in terms of aesthetic. My favorite collection was of the natives because I’m predisposed to being interested in those types of people. I enjoyed the way they were photographed from head to toe. It seemed very natural. Other times pictures taken like that aren’t really all that natural.

The nude bodies were also interesting because they showed women of all shapes and sizes. The images were also developed at different times making some lighter than others and vice versa.

The African tribes and scarification were intense because they showed the women’s skin with detail and had them all come together to show the unity and commitment of these tribes.

Visiting the exhibition I discovered that Irving Penn was originally a street photographer. However, upon working for Vogue and meeting his wife, his pictures were of human subjects. He had many powerful pictures ranging from famous people in New York City at the time to the people of Peru and to the women of New Guinea.

What interested me the most was the fact that despite the numerous photographs of the human being, Penn had a very strong love for still life. He felt that the objects he captured left the essence of the human. A whole section of the exhibition was dedicated to the photos of the burning of 2 cigarettes. It was so fascinating to me that each photo represented each stage of the life of these cigarettes. I don’t know why but this part of the exhibition really spoke to me. To be able to compare each picture or be able to skip from the beginning to the end was something I never saw in photography. I decided to take a picture of the last stage of the burning cigarettes because I like how you wouldn’t be able to tell what it was unless you looked at the other stages. And the use of 4 parts of the picture to make one big picture.

Sebastiao Salgado went through incredible feats to obtained these pictures. He risked his life to capture the horrible disaster that was occurring in Kuwait. Just knowing what he endured makes these pictures powerful however, the content of the photos is a different story.

The first thing I noticed was that all the pictures were black and white. Taking a closer look I found that the use of black and white had this effect on the way I saw the fire and smoke. They appeared to me as more powerful and scary than how I would see them through my own eyes. I think the distinction of the light from the fire and the darkness from clouds of smoke cause this effect. The background of each picture being dark sets a mood of hopelessness and sadness especially when these huge clouds of light are compared in size to the firefighters. I feel that a good representation of what I felt can be seen in the 1^st picture.

But I feel that not all pictures should have been in black and white. A few pictures would have had more of an impact on me if they were in color. Pictures such as the 2^nd picture is a good representation of what I’m talking about. Here the men look almost like toys. The black and white makes the men look painted over with the effect it has on the oil on them. I don’t know if this was intentional but for me, it removes the mood I had of the event when comparing this picture to the 1^st picture.

Perfected Grid

April Greiman

Zhao Jian_Massimo Vignelli

Riley.M- Shigeo Fukuda

Graphic Design Paper – Paul Rand

Vo_TuongVy_Graphic Designer_Paul Rand