-
Details
- Date
- 1948
- Media category
- Photograph
- Materials used
- gelatin silver photograph
- Dimensions
- 24.0 x 14.5 cm image; 35.8 x 28.4 cm sheet
- Signature & date
Signed and dated c. verso, ink "Irving Penn 1948".
- Credit
- Gift of Edron Pty Ltd - 1995 through the auspices of Alistair McAlpine
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 324.1996
- Copyright
- © 1948 (renewed 1976) by The Condé Nast Publications, Inc.
- Artist information
-
Irving Penn
Works in the collection
- Share
-
-
About
Simplicity and clarity of style is a trademark of Penn's studio portraits. Backdrops and props are minimal; the space of the studio itself is used. Penn adopted the device of posing his subjects in sharp-angled corner spaces to further bring out their personality and remove any distractions from his minimal and austere composition.
'Sometime in 1948 I began photographing portraits in a small corner space made of two studio flats pushed together, the floor covered with a piece of old carpeting...this confinement, surprisingly seemed to comfort people, soothing them. The walls were a surface to lean on or push against. For me the picture possibilities were interesting; limiting the subjects movements seemed to relieve me of part of the problem of holding onto them.' Irving Penn
-
Exhibition history
Shown in 2 exhibitions
American Beauty: from Muybridge to Goldin, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 05 Jun 2003–27 Jul 2003
Hold still: the photographic performance, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 12 May 2018–29 Jul 2018
-
Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
-
Judy Annear, American beauty: from Muybridge to Goldin, Sydney, 2003. no catalogue numbers
-
