Cuzco Children, Peru

From Vogue covers to ethnographic portraits, from floral still lifes to experimental nude studies, the vast corpus that Irving Penn (1917-2009) produced covers with the same mastery all the fields of photography.
He is foremost a studio photographer, and the “neutral zone” that he designs there (a simple canvas or white paper background in a natural light) defines a spatial framework that decontextualizes and highlights the presence of its multiple subjects.
This working principle of great modesty will follow him in all his travels, from Morocco to New Guinea via San Francisco, Cuzco or Nepal.

After completing a fashion shoot in Peru for Vogue magazine, Irving Penn traveled to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Inca civilization. He decided to remain for a few days and rented a photography studio. Most of the Peruvian clients who went to the studio were indigenous people who had come to Cuzco to sell their handcrafts for the Christmas period. Penn offered to pay them for sitting, confusing many of the Peruvians who had come prepared to pay and expected to take their portraits away with them.
This photograph of two children is one of Irving Penn’s most famous and touching images. With their bare feet and worn-out traditional outfits, topped with large hats, the children seem unimpressed. Their direct and confident stare is more like that of two adults. A certain gravitas, both humble and regal, emanates from the children, who are posed in a simple setting, on a stone-paved floor with an old sheet for a backcloth.

This photograph was shown for the first time by Pinault Collection in 2023 during the exhibition “Chronorama, Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century” at Palazzo Grassi, Venice.