- Irving Penn was born in Plainsville New Jersey. He was born into a Jewish Russian family. For college, Irving attended the Philadelphia School of Art. He spent summer’s working for Harbor’s Bazaar as an office boy and a apprentice artist. At the age of 25 he moved to Mexico to become an artist, but after 2 year’s he decided he would never become more than a mediocre artist and moved to New York. Eventually, Alexander Liberman made him an assistant at Vogu, and his career took off from there.
- He is a portrait photographer for the most part. He takes photos with mostly plain background. The photos are only about the person and it tells a story about them. The photo doesn’t focus on the background.
- All of his work is very personal. It takes the personality and really display’s it in the photo. Looking at the photo’s you feel as though you already know them. If I were to compare it to a painting I’d compare it with Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer; both convey the person’s personality very well and they are posed in some of the same ways.
- He has influenced my work a lot. Now I try harder to show my person’s personality in the photo. I use a plain background for them for the most part now.My backgrounds used to be very overwhelming and distracting. It makes my photo’s look a lot more professional.
Compare and Contrast
Irving Penn influenced this pictures quite a bit. But I wanted to put my own spin on it. I thought if I didn't make it black and white it would be just different enough to appear new. In my pictures I wasn't able to really embody the people in the pictures as well as his pictures did. One day I hope to be able to take photos as good as his but I don't know if anything will happen.
Personal Artist Statement
My images capture the life and personalities of different individuals just like Irving Penn. I think i did a good job of making my focal point clear. I could have definitely made the background more similar.