Irving Penn is mostly famous for his portraiture, however I will be looking at his still life images. These images are very stylistic, cinematic and dramatic. Often including food and flowers, these images often show chaos and imperfections.
These images often have a commercial and cinematic appeal to them, it's said that Penn pushed the boundaries for still life images in his time.
Take for example, this image of cheese, and a red pear and an ant. The lighting is very cinematic, I'm not sure exactly what he used but it would appear that he used a singular studio light, creating a lot of shadow and therefore contrast. The background also looks very studio-like being plain white, which allows for the textures of the food to be more pronounced. It also feels rather sterile as I know that such food items don't belong in a studio setting - we don't see food in our everyday lives on plain white background.
The image is slightly disturbing, unnerving almost. This is caused by the lighting, the textures and of course the bugs. It feels wrong to be looking at the food like this, it feels like it's dramatised for a reason yet I don't know the reason which can be unsettling. The lighting specifically makes it intimidating. Penn must know how to work a camera and set up if he can manage to make cheese appear intimidating.
Perhaps another reason for this is that the food isn't perfect as we'd see in advertising. The commercial techniques are being used but not for something anybody would ever advertise.
As humans we have an instinctive reaction to get rid of anything that's not perfect, whether this be bruised fruit or simply wonky vegetables, and so this also goes against what we would usually do as we can't throw out an image. This is in the world and always will be. It's not an interactive piece, it just looks at you as you look at it, useless. Just how we see the food.
This image is rather different from the one above. Titled 'Theatre Accident', this image shows a lot more chaos than his images with food. The images he did with food appears much more put together, deliberated and thought out. Of course, this image probably was too as it's said he was a perfectionist, however he didn't make it appear that way.
The title helps give a hint as to what we're looking at - i'd presume this was supposed to be a bad of somebody working in the theatre. The possessions of this person can tell us a lot about them. I assume the person who owns these items is the person with their foot in the image. It appears to be a woman's shoe and a black slitted trouser that is swooshing into the frame, so I guess it's woman who owns this bag and items.
In the jumble of things there are a few things to point out. The first things we see when we look at the image are the pocket watch, the whistle and the binoculars. This then suggests that the owner isn't somebody who works at the theatre but somebody who is attending the theatre. Theatre was often something for the prestigious in those times and so the amount of gold and glamour in the image would make sense.
After we move on from these bigger objects we see the orange and pink pills. If this image was taken more recently, the cigarette could have been a sign of stress and unhappiness, however smoking in the 40's was something that was just done; context is important here.
The pills however, could indicate just that. If they were prescribed you'd expect them in a bottle or foil, which these are not. Them being loose in the bag suggests they were one off purchases, and therefore likely to be illegal. We don't know this for sure of course, as little facts are given by the artist and we're left to presume. Our presumptions will all be different as our upbringing, environment and experiences lead us to think different things.
Using these images as visual stimulants, I would certainly be interested in taking certain techniques such as lighting and insinuations into my own work. Perhaps a mix of both would work for me; a more to the point and dramatic image such as the first one, but also using human objects to tell a narrative.
I didn't think i'd be very inspired by these images at first, but upon thought I really am. The simplicity of the subjects with the well thought out technique and execution is exactly what I feel like I am missing from my own work.
These images often have a commercial and cinematic appeal to them, it's said that Penn pushed the boundaries for still life images in his time.
Take for example, this image of cheese, and a red pear and an ant. The lighting is very cinematic, I'm not sure exactly what he used but it would appear that he used a singular studio light, creating a lot of shadow and therefore contrast. The background also looks very studio-like being plain white, which allows for the textures of the food to be more pronounced. It also feels rather sterile as I know that such food items don't belong in a studio setting - we don't see food in our everyday lives on plain white background.
The image is slightly disturbing, unnerving almost. This is caused by the lighting, the textures and of course the bugs. It feels wrong to be looking at the food like this, it feels like it's dramatised for a reason yet I don't know the reason which can be unsettling. The lighting specifically makes it intimidating. Penn must know how to work a camera and set up if he can manage to make cheese appear intimidating.
Perhaps another reason for this is that the food isn't perfect as we'd see in advertising. The commercial techniques are being used but not for something anybody would ever advertise.
As humans we have an instinctive reaction to get rid of anything that's not perfect, whether this be bruised fruit or simply wonky vegetables, and so this also goes against what we would usually do as we can't throw out an image. This is in the world and always will be. It's not an interactive piece, it just looks at you as you look at it, useless. Just how we see the food.
This image is rather different from the one above. Titled 'Theatre Accident', this image shows a lot more chaos than his images with food. The images he did with food appears much more put together, deliberated and thought out. Of course, this image probably was too as it's said he was a perfectionist, however he didn't make it appear that way.
The title helps give a hint as to what we're looking at - i'd presume this was supposed to be a bad of somebody working in the theatre. The possessions of this person can tell us a lot about them. I assume the person who owns these items is the person with their foot in the image. It appears to be a woman's shoe and a black slitted trouser that is swooshing into the frame, so I guess it's woman who owns this bag and items.
In the jumble of things there are a few things to point out. The first things we see when we look at the image are the pocket watch, the whistle and the binoculars. This then suggests that the owner isn't somebody who works at the theatre but somebody who is attending the theatre. Theatre was often something for the prestigious in those times and so the amount of gold and glamour in the image would make sense.
After we move on from these bigger objects we see the orange and pink pills. If this image was taken more recently, the cigarette could have been a sign of stress and unhappiness, however smoking in the 40's was something that was just done; context is important here.
The pills however, could indicate just that. If they were prescribed you'd expect them in a bottle or foil, which these are not. Them being loose in the bag suggests they were one off purchases, and therefore likely to be illegal. We don't know this for sure of course, as little facts are given by the artist and we're left to presume. Our presumptions will all be different as our upbringing, environment and experiences lead us to think different things.
Using these images as visual stimulants, I would certainly be interested in taking certain techniques such as lighting and insinuations into my own work. Perhaps a mix of both would work for me; a more to the point and dramatic image such as the first one, but also using human objects to tell a narrative.
I didn't think i'd be very inspired by these images at first, but upon thought I really am. The simplicity of the subjects with the well thought out technique and execution is exactly what I feel like I am missing from my own work.
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