Digital Photography Assignment: Masters Project

Irving Penn

Irving Penn

Irving Penn

For this creative assignment we were to choose a single photographer whose work we would like to emulate (copy).  We were asked to consider subject, framing, angle, mood, lighting, white balance, grain, d.o.f., context and then recreate them.

The artist I chose to emulate for this assignment was Irving Penn.  I chose to focus on Portraiture because I feel that is an area where I struggle in photography and an area I need to strengthen.  Picking Irving Penn who is renowned for his portrait work gave me the challenge I needed.  His photos are truly amazing, especially the work he did in the 1950's- portraits of tradesmen done in Paris, London and New York.  These were without a doubt the most significant bodies of work in his portfolio.  He took individuals (pulled off the street in most cases) in their work attire, to his studio in front of a plain backdrop (an old theatre curtain) while natural light flooded in through a wall of windows and skylights.

At first glance, I think Penn's work often gets discounted as 'simple' or 'unimaginative'.  Even with my basic knowledge of photography, I could tell that there was a lot more to his shots than meets the eye- and setting out to reproduce them drove that point home even farther.  I am completely deficient in the are of studio work.  I have no studio, no set of banking windows, no theatre curtain, and no subjects... so I had to improvise.  I purchased a canvas tarp from an outdoor store and hung it from a frame that I built with 2x4's.  I gutted the room in my home where there was the best access to natural light, and I gathered as many 'props' as I could emulate Penn's "Carpenter" shot.  The first attempts that I made at capturing the look of this subject convinced me of how hard portrait work really is.  I was able to get feedback from my class about how to improve those first efforts and then set to work on trying to really capture light and shadow all at the same time.  This is after all, the essence of Penn's work.  I had to equal out the light that I was getting and I had to work at casting better shadows.  I put up some screens to help block some of the light that was coming into the room.

I continue to be amazed a Penn's body of work.  The more I look through some of his portraits, the more I remain in awe of him.  It's pretty remarkable that he was able to capture the number of shots that he did without really ever duplicating the same background, shadow, light or pose.

This experience has been positive over all.  It made me frustrated with my lack of resources and models (I used myself for 4 of the images).  Lighting was really tricky too.  I gained so much though the pros outweighed the cons.  I learned that a simple background can make an image amazingly complex.  I also saw how I can use natural light to my advantage.  I think I will have to revisit Penn's work over and over again to pull all the lessons possible out of his work- the little bit I've done so far has been rewarding.