Irving Penn – Yang,M

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Art 4900

Irving Penn Exhibitions

Mei Yang

When I first walk into the show room, there are lots of work with objects and portraits. Those works are most in black and white, some are in colors. From my point of view the most attracted photographs were the series of Small Trades. It looks very differently from the studio to the work place when he taking those photos. Because without the surrounding environment they seem more comfortable and confident to take photo. From their gestures, most are standing straight holding their tools. Penn use the light from the side to make the portraits more contrast and alive. I see those photographs as documentary photographs. They are not only show how do they look in different jobs but also record the era in history.

Another interesting series were the cigarettes. They are famous till nowadays. One thing we don’t realize is the small stuff. Like the discarded cigarettes, they are everywhere but almost invisible. No one will care too much about the garbage. But Penn can turn them into a very powerful and beautiful photograph. He uses the light very nicely capture the details of the cigarettes. I never thought about it to take an object like this before I see them. His ideas are unique but also common. The cigarettes are no more regular they are art works. Penn opens my mind a lot about becoming a photographer, to discover more beauty in life.

Irving Penn – Balatbat

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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.