Irving Penn ( )

Transcription

1 Irving Penn ( ) The photographer Irving Penn is considered one of the greats of the 20 th century. With a wide range of subjects from powerful portraits to posh fashion models, Penn s 70 year career was executed with dedication and an extreme adherence to his subdued yet striking photographic vision. Irving Penn, Picture of Self, Cuzco, 1948, Gelatin silver print. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey (1917) to immigrant parents, Penn attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts from and studied with Alexey Brodovitch Art Director of Harper s Bazaar from It was a Harper s Bazaar assistantship and the fulltime position at Vogue that Penn launched into commercial and fashion photography. Between Penn s fashion collaborations and precise printing processes, he effectively changed the face of modern photography to which everything we see now could likely be traced back to his career. Irving Penn, Irving Penn at Work in Cuzco, Cuzco, 1948 printed 1997, silver print. As a photographer, Penn was meticulous in achieving the physical images of what he visualized for the final product. Prior to photoshoots he would plan every aspect, from clothing to lighting and hand placement. From there it was akin to a slow waltz to move the model, frame by frame, to achieve his vision, without settling.

2 Irving Penn, Single Oritental Poppy New York, 1968 printed 1987, dye transfer print. This resulted in stunning photographs, many of which are displayed in this traveling exhibition. This show highlights the fact that his artistic vision was to never photograph the obvious, to be open to challenges and creativity, and, most importantly, to never shy away from that which may be unseemly to others or that have already been discarded and forgotten. Penn wanted to undermine the idea that whatever s in the picture is sort of an ideal condition and the lasting condition, especially in a magazine about beauty. Penn wanted to undermine that because if you re an artist and your experience shows you that the world is a much more complicated place, how could you pretend? You only have to dive into the right literature to understand that post war, it was an existential moment and the world as it was [previously] known had come to an end and many people had suffered. Because of Penn, we now see flowers that are dying as beautiful things and his vision of the reality of life and death is what makes his work profound. -Maria Morris Hambourg, co-curator of Irving Penn: Centennial Though perhaps it is Irving Penn s portraits that are willing to change or stray away from the public perceptions of his sitters. Most are set against a neutral background, two pieces of wood set to construct a corner, or shot in close range. It is in these neutral settings that sitters reveled themselves: the large and looming presence of Salvador Dali, the effects of age on Truman Capote, and the strength of a weathered Berber Shepardess in Morocco. For Penn not only sought to capture

3 notable figures of New York, in his various travels he also began to photograph people of diverse backgrounds in their natural environments (with the use of pop-up studios.) In his travel photography he also learned that both nationality and character emerged before his lens, for if he were to take them out of their surroundings, and into his own studio, Penn feared they would not communicate as authentically with him. Irving Penn, Cuzco Woman with High Shoes, 1948 printed 1978, platinumpalladium print. Irving Penn, Truman Capote 1979 (3 of 3), New York, 1979 printed 1983, silver print. Irving Penn, Gypsy Family - Extremadura 1965 printed 1980, platinumpalladium print. Irving Penn s fashion photography also began to revolutionize the magazine world most notably Vogue. These photos became not only about the clothing or accessories that were highlighted but also the models. He chose models that had attitude that could directly be translated through the lens and into the final photograph. He sought interesting shapes, sharp lighting, unexpected poses, and the unconventional when it came to beauty. These become hallmarks of the relationship between commercial work and art. For as an artist Penn changed the function of photographs in the magazine to evoke that which was unordinary and beyond commonplace, what was beyond beauty. Irving Penn, Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn)--New York, 1950 printed 1979, platinum-palladium print. Irving Penn, Issey Miyake Fashion, White and Black, New York, 1990 printed 1992, silver print. Irving Penn, Ball Dress by Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci, New York, 2007, silver print.

4 Platinum Palladium Printing A meticulous craftsman, Irving Penn has experimented extensively with platinum/palladium printing since the early 1960s, transforming his celebrated photographs into independent works of art with remarkably subtle, rich tonal ranges and luxurious textures. Prized for its rich, subtle tonal range and its wealth of fine detail, platinum was a popular method of making photographic prints at the turn of the 20th century. Photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Frederick Evans employed it extensively. With platinum, chemicals could be applied with a brush, allowing greater freedom of expression. Also, the light sensitive salts were absorbed into the paper fibers, giving the print a sensuous texture dramatically different from the glossy surface of gelatin silver prints. As the cost of platinum escalated during World War I, manufacturers stopped making platinum paper. A few continued to make platinum paper by hand, but the process had long since been forgotten by the time Penn embraced it in the early 1960s. In the early 1960s, disillusioned with the way his photographs appeared in publications, Penn embarked on a multiyear research project to learn more about the long-forgotten technique of platinum printing. He conducted his initial research in the New York Public Library, scouring old journals for recipes and techniques on the platinum process. His first results were less than satisfactory. As he looked at the first platinum print he had ever made, he realized that he needed to coat, expose, and develop his print multiple times in order to achieve the richness and complexity he desired. He would also have to ensure that his negative was in perfect registration and that the paper did not change size during its repeated submersions in chemicals. He overcame considerable technical challenges to do so, at one point even working with DuPont on a new polymer that would affix paper to an aluminum support. Penn worked in his darkroom on Long Island on the weekends, often late into the night, devoting several years to his experiments with various printing techniques. He tried many different chemicals, including palladium, iridium, and gum bichromate, mixed with both black and colored pigments. Platinum, he discovered, produced a lavish tonal image and rich blacks but, used alone, could be coarse, while palladium gave delicate tones but lacked true blacks. After many trials, he realized that when platinum and palladium were mixed together in the correct proportions and coated onto the paper multiple times they could create luminous prints. Penn experimented not only with multiple coatings and different formulas, but also with different exposure times, developing solutions, and various papers. He spent several years perfecting his technique and did not make prints he found acceptable until Penn mixed, coated, exposed, and developed all the platinum prints himself. After spending years as a commercial photographer who made negatives but sometimes did not see his results until they were printed in a magazine, he delighted in his newfound ability to make a photograph from start to finish. He went back to earlier photographs and sought to transform them from a thing suitable for reproduction into something beautiful in and of itself. Starting in the 1970s, he also applied the platinum process to new photographs. **Information on this process taken directly from the National Gallery of Art: **

5 1917 Born in Plainfeild, New Jersey 1950 Striking fashion photographs by Penn appear in Vogue. Many of these feature the Swedish model Lisa Fonssagrives She an Penn marry in London the same year Attends Philidelphia Museum School of Industrial Art Becomes Alexey Brodovitch's assistant at Harper's Bazaar Begins advertising in addition to editorial work 1938 Penn buys his first camera, a Rolleiflex 1960's Publishes his first book, "Moments Preserved" Continues fashion and portrait photography for Vogue; begins series of flowers; travels for Vogue to Japan and Crete Begins experiments to develop a complex method for printing in platinum and palladium metals Travels through the American South and to Cuzco Mexico to spend a year painting January: Travels to Dahomey (now Benin) October: Travels to Nepal 1943 Hired to Vouge by Art Director Alexander Liberman and has his first cover on October Travels to Cameroon 1948 Travels to France, Italy, Spain, and Peru for Vouge After completeing fashion editorials in Lima, he prolongs the stay to make portraits of local people in a daylight studio in Cuzco Travels to new Guinea Photographs a series of nudes which he prints using an experimental process of bleaching and redeveloping. 1970's Pursues photographic projects concieved for the platinum palladium process Exhibitions at MoMA, MeET, and Marlborough Gallery

6 1971 Travels to Morocco 1995 Penn travels to Paris to photograph the Haute Couture collections for the final time Donates a majority of his archies and 130 fine art prints to the Art Insitute of Chicago "Irving Penn" a retrospective exhibition at the MoMA, tours widely in the US and abroad 1997 "Irving Penn: A Career in Photography" retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago 1986 Penn begins collaboration with fashion designer Issey Miyake 2002 "Earthly Bodies: Irving Penn Nudes, " exhibition at the MET Simultaneously, "Dancer: 1999 Nudes" exhibition held at the Whiney Museum of American Art 1987 Penn gifts 120 works to the Smithsonian Insitute in Washington DC 2004 Photographs his 165th Vogue cover 1990 "Irving Penn: Master Images" retrospective jointly organized by the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American Art in Washington DC 2005 Establishes the Irving Penn Foundation Wife, Lisa Fonssagrives, dies in New York Penn's innovative portraits, still life, fashion, and beauty photographs continue to appear reguarly in Vogue Also persues a number of personal projects and experiments. Still life work flourishes, he returns to flowers and nudes as subjects, sursues complex technical experiments with cameras and printing, in addition to painting, drawing, and printing Returns to flowers as a photographic subject Irving Penn dies at his home in New York at the age of 92