Thursday, February 07, 2008

look, purty pictures

Today I read a totally cool book of Irving Penn photographs. (Did I read it or look at it? There were words as well as photos...what verb does one use for a photo book?) It's called Worlds in a Small Room and I recommend it if you can find a copy.

Irving Penn is a fashion photographer (I think he's in his 90's) who did a ton of work for Vogue in places like New Guinea, Cuzco, and Paris. He liked to take people into a studio (often a tent he carried with him) and shoot them in northern light against a plain background. I gather the idea was to get more of the subject's personality rather than taking your standard Native Person In Native Setting shot. Ask me in June why I was reading this book, because it's pretty funny (and will never make it into print).

Anyway, in one of those cool coincidences of modern media, today the Times has a story about the Getty buying a bunch of his photos - including some of the ones in this book! Cool, huh? Follow the link to see some of the people he photographed...not quite as exotic as tribesmen in New Guinea, but lovely pictures.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That diver is creepy as hell.