Irving Penn

Irving Penn is an American photographer known for his portrait, fashion and still life photography. I researched Irving Penn due to the studio aspect of my project, which is photographing objects under model lighting.

"Returning to New York, he won an audience with Alexander Liberman, art director of Vogue magazine, who hired Penn as his assistant, specifically to suggest photographic covers for Vogue. The staff photographers didn't think much of his ideas, but Liberman did and asked Penn to take the pictures himself. Using a borrowed camera, and drawing on his art background and experience, Penn arranged a still life consisting of a big brown leather bag, beige scarf and gloves, lemons, oranges, and a huge topaz. It was published as the Vogue cover for the issue of October 1, 1943, and launched Penn on his photographic career."

As a photograph Irving Penn is described as the god of still life by other still life photographers who have always looked up to Irving Penn. Looking up to Irving Penn myself, i adopted the composition of the third image containing the coca cola bottle which displays to the viewer that the cola bottle is the main focus point of the image. The reason i believe this is due to its centralised strong position, Whereas if the bottle was lay down and on similar size balance as the hot dog, it would not look as a strong focus

point of the photograph. I used this composition approach when photographing the two metal cans in the studio with i had taken from The Abraham Ormerod Medical centre. I had one of the cans central and stood up, which another same sized can lay down next to it, this created levels and shown the viewer two different insights into the object, which were the same but could be seen from two angle's.

To conclude, i hope further into my photography degree or just for personal work i will be able to conduct more photography in the style of Irving Penn, as this small experiment and insight into his work helped myself alot when considering composition on a small scale such as within a studio.