Irving Penn. Artists Portraits

An artist’s artist, Irving Penn first studied painting, an approach he would then apply to construct his still lives and plumb the psychological depths of his subjects. Devoid of any flourish or decoration, his studio consisted of an old theatre curtain, a stool, or at most an armchair draped with a ragged, heavy fabric – this is all Irving Penn would provide people when photographing them. Away from their studios and off-stage, the artists appear without tools, instruments, entourages, or fanfare of any kind. It was through this process of stripping things down to an almost minimalist core that he would portray his subjects, ultimately yielding portraits of an unprecedented existential depth. The bareness of the setting and Irving Penn’s graphic conciseness uncovered the psyche of each of his subjects with the utmost delicacy. His influence on the art of photography was widely felt. Simplicity, light, construction, and distance were the magic formula that the artist concocted to reveal people and objects on glossy paper.