blank magazine » Blank Mag Blank Mag Blank Mag http://blankmag.net modern urban life Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:23:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Irving Penn RIP http://blankmag.net/art/irving-penn-rip/ http://blankmag.net/art/irving-penn-rip/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:38:35 +0000 editor http://blankmag.net/?p=108 Irving Penn was one of the most versatile photographers of the 20th century, bringing his minimalist style to subjects as diverse as designer frocks, New Guinea tribesmen, Parisian pompiers, London dustmen, nudes, Hell’s Angels, famous artists, celebrities, cigarette ends, rotting fruit and cosmetic products. Over five decades he contributed more than 150 cover photographs for Vogue. Only Richard Avedon is held in the same esteem as a fashion photographer

One of his favourite methods was to shoot his subjects in a tight angular space, thus provoking a reaction. A famous photograph of Truman Capote, taken in New York in 1948, shows him scrunched up in the corner of a room, his knees pressed into the back of a stool, looking more like a Francis Bacon gargoyle than a celebrity author. “This confinement surprisingly seemed to comfort people,” Penn said. “It soothed them. The walls were a surface to lean on or push against.”

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