Masters of Photography - Irving Penn

One of Irving Penn's pictures was of a woman holding up a square piece 

of glass. Trying to copy the exact photo would have been inconvenient. 

Therefore, I had Aileen stand behind a glass door and put her hands on the

 glass so it would be more obvious.

I cropped this picture so that there was not as much space above her head.

 As almost all of Penn's photos are in black and white, I lowered the saturation down to zero 

to match his color scheme. I also increased the clarity, which revealed a little more reflection.

Irving Penn took a picture of a man where the most notable aspect was his fingers 

clutching his leather jacket. Here, I had Vedika do the same to her leather vest.

Again I cropped the picture so that it would be more focused on Vedika, and I also 

decreased the saturation to zero to produce a black and white photo. In addition,

 I increased the highlights to make the picture appear brighter.

Sometimes, Irving Penn took portraits of his subjects at tables, in which the photos 

seemed to be focused on the position of the hands. In this particular picture,

Lavanya's hands are clasped together, with her elbows pointed out in opposite directions.

I decreased the saturation down to zero so that the photo would be black and white.

 I also increased the contrast and lowered shadows to darken the photo and make 

Lavanya pop out more in front of the background.

Irving Penn loved to take portraits in front of corners. He noted that his subjects

 often felt most comfortable in front of corners, and that the small space 

strangely comforted them.

Again, I changed the saturation to create a black and white photo. I also increased

 highlights to make the background slightly brighter.

Irving Penn seemed to enjoy taking portraits from different angles. Many of them

 can be seen taken from the subjects' sides. I decided to do the same for Aileen, in

 front of a clear background as Penn did with his photos.

Once more, I lowered the saturation to zero to get a black and white picture,
 which darkened her hairs and accentuated her frame.

Irving Penn lived from June 16, 1917 to October 7, 2009. He was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, went to school in Philadelphia, and was found dead in his home in Manhattan, New York. While he did photograph still lifes, he was most famous for his fashion photography. When he was taking portraits, he would place his subjects in front of a plain backdrop for simplicity. This way, his subjects and their attire would really shine through as the main focus of the images. One of his most creative strategies was to place his subjects in front of a corner, where he noted that they actually felt comfortable in the small space. Irving Penn is considered a master due to this creativity that he displays. Because of it, he often shot photos for the cover of the famous Vogue magazine. My group chose this photographer because we were amazed by his fashion work. His photos seemed to have that simple yet deep and complex quality that inspired us to try and captivate. While working on the project, I believe that his photos taught me to be more creative. I focused on specific hand positioning and poses, something that would be a little different. Because of this lesson, I am most proud of my first photo, where I decided to capture both what stood behind the glass and what was reflected from it.