Masters of Photography - Irving Penn

Penn's multiple portraits for Vogue inspired me to take

some with attitude and elegance.

Penn seemed to have an obsession with lips for he had a series

of photos with them in various forms. This compelled me

to take one on my own. 

                                         Penn had a series of photographs of fruit. I decided to
                                      merge this idea of fruit with the idea that there are always
                                      so many different expressions in his photos to create a
                                                       picture with "fruit expressions".

                                             Another classic of Penn, he always seemed to be
                                            obsessed with corners. This is inspired from Penn's
                                              portraits in a corner. I call it the school edition

One of his pictures that really stood out to me was a picture 

of a dandelion, but you could see through to the inside of it. This 

inspired me to take something similar. In this picture, your can see clearly

through the Queen, but you can also see the entire chess board through her head. It's as if she 

were planning her next blow. 

My Reflection

    Over the course of the past few weeks, as an assignment from my Digital Photography class, I was supposed to take pictures inspired by our chosen photographer, Irving Penn. Irving Penn was born on June 16th, 1917 and died recently on October 7th, 2009. His most famous and well-known pictures were taken in the middle and later 1900s. His interests in photography were fairly simple. He took a plethora of portrait. Since he worked for Vogue, fashion photography was a major part of his work. He also had a gentler side; he worked with nature and fruits and always seemed to take the most interesting of pictures with them. Penn was among the first photographers to pose subjects against a gray or white backdrop, which made his photography simple, yet elegant. He was also unique in a way where he saw the simple things in life but made them mean something so much deeper than they actually did. We chose Irving Penn because we saw this in him and with our limited resources we knew that taking pictures like his would not be a problem. He inspired me to dig a little deeper and take photos that are worth taking and have a story to tell. He really inspired me to analyze every detail and always question myself. As I worked on my project I began to make a story out of every picture. I believe this quality will help me when taking photos later on in the future.