"Photographing a cake can be art"- Irving Penn

Irving Penn

"Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is one they would like to show the world… very often what lies behind the façade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe”, a statement made by Irving Penn in 1975.  Irving originally strived to be a painter, and studied design at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from 1934 to 1938. Irving got as far as being an advertising director at Saks Fifth Avenue, before he left on a trip to Mexico for a year to work on painting. His return from Mexico was a turning point in his life, as he gave up on painting and honed in on photography. Irving accepted a position at Vogue to draw illustrations for the cover, which eventually turned into photographing cover images. Opposing to other photographers he worked with, Irving preferred to work with less-controlled situations in the studio. Irving Penn’s style of photography really intrigues me, as it incorporates mainly black and white, and has a romantic, serious, and mysterious tone to it.

The romantic style is apparent in almost every picture of Irving’s, as the dominant triangle is ever present. A triangle composition in a photograph signifies a stable, but also dynamic subject, which relates to the world of emotions. In his pictures, Irving positions some of his subjects in the form of a pyramid or triangle. In addition he uses mainly black and white photography, which is very moody, and really helps set the romantic tone, resulting from less distraction from various colours.

 Irving Penn used black and white photography, which is the perfect medium for portraying sentiments and emotions. By utilizing black and white, he is able to capture the depth of texture in a wide array of finishes, as there is no distraction from colour. Irving mainly uses high contrast in his photography, aiding in conveying the message of strength, power and authority. In order to provide a more serious tone or theme to a serious subject, he utilizes higher contrast, enhancing prominent features. Black and white allows you to capture a simplistic image, with accents of detail, such as the texture of skin, clothing, or reflective surfaces such as glasses.

 Through the lens of Irving many of the photos he composed evoke a sense of mystery. The varying subject matter, have depth to their stature, displaying underlying emotions. In order to evoke some of that mystery, Irving used portable studios to retain the austere studio feel of his images. The subject matter he chose to photograph, were in themselves mysterious, a biker, tribal members, masked people, etc.

Irving Penn displayed his extraordinary capacity for work, versatility, inventiveness, and imagination in a number of fields including editorial illustration, advertising, photojournalism, portraits, still life, travel, and television. He is able to take a typical picture, and make it seem so unique, or on the other hand take an unusual picture and make it seem so casual and typical. His ability to capture the perfect pose through using black and white photography, and his mysterious, serious style is what really captures my attention when viewing his work.

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In my emulation of Irving's photography style, I used high contrast, a plain background, an interesting subject matter, and a serious/mysterious tone in the picture. I believe my emulation is pleasing, as all of the elements I incorporated, are the ones I believe that Irving's pictures are composed of. I couldn’t quite get a studio setting alike to Irving’s, in my house, but I did incorporate the theme of the picture into the surroundings. The carpet in my photo ties in with the karate theme, as mats, and carpets/rugs are used for practice in karate. Irving, himself actually used an old rug he picked up in a shop and used it as a portrait prop for about 3 months.

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Bibliography

http://www.advancedphotography.net/black-white-photography-10-tips-shoot-awesome-black-white-photographs/

http://www.photography-now.net/irving_penn/

http://www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/irving_penn.htm

http://photography.about.com/od/famousphotographers/a/irvingpenn.htm

http://www.npg.org.uk/irvingpenn/time1.htm

repppinnn' podzy

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"chyea das me"
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So "this guy" I know had a big birthday coming up, and I knew I had to make him an awesome gift that would make it memorable. He's a music producer, and is working on a new album, which is going to be a solid one. Comparing the songs on his soon to be released album compared to his last, gave me a sense of sophistication and progression. Sure I give him my opinion on the songs' progression, but I felt the need to contribute more to the completion of the album. I've always wanted make my own graphic for a t-shirt, but not with iron on paper that just ends up fading away with a few washes. For our alternative process unit in photography class, silkscreening was a optional process provided. Combining a project and a present is always fun as it gives you extra motivation to make the project better, and vice versa. I took many pictures of him, with bold poses not showing too much of his face, as I wanted his figure to be on his own shirt, although not obvious to the world. As I was shooting the pictures and different poses of him, I took a picture of him fixing his hair by accident. Scanning the pictures on my computer after the shoot, left me contemplating between a serious, bold pose, and the natural hair-fixing photo. I ended up choosing the unplanned shot, opposing to the fact that most people would have probably chosen the other shot for this scenario. The title of his new album is "Who We Are", which was the message I really felt was portrayed in the picture I chose. He has a natural, light lauging-smile on his face, with one hand on his forehead, looking as if he just made a silly mistake and is now laughing it off, displaying that we are "who we are". Although the picture may sound as if it looked youthful, it really looked mellow and complete. I cropped his body out of the picture, made it b/w, and put it on a black background in photoshop with his name and new album at the opposite side of the picture. Finding the perfect font for his name and new album title required a lot of scavenging. Once I finally found the font I was was so pleased, as it was so clean and crisp, reflecting another style/side of the picture so well. After a choatic few days of pulling this together, I felt a huge wave of relief as my first tranfer to a t-shirt was incredibly successful. I loved the shirts, and my final curiosity was to see his reaction when opening his present on his birthday.

Cyana Type

It's amazing how the sun can help create such an interesting affect on an image. I never thought of cyana type being very unique, until I attempted it myself. I wanted to do something with this picture after taking it, but I wasn't quite sure what exactly. Upon pondering which process to close the unit with, I immediately thought of this picture and the cyana type process combined. I didn't want to do a cyana type of a landscape photo, because I feel as if that is what most people use. I wanted a photo with a lot of meaning and life and detail to it, and for the cyana type to add an old, mystic affect to it. I am very pleased with the outcome of this photo, as the reflection from the window on the piano is so crisp and unique, and the angle of the photo with muted colour adding lots of depth to the picture. 

Photogram Shinanigans

I really had no idea what to do for this project, which was different to all of my other processes, and is understandable as it was my first process. I looked around my kitchen the night before I planned to do my photogram and couldn't find anything that would look interesting in the picture. I picked up my headphones thought that they would be very fascinating to incorporate, as I have such great appreciation for my music. I then wanted to create and Apple add-like picture with the headphones, advertising the iPod and it's amazing capability to store mass amounts of music, but without the  iPod. I wanted to create an interesting background for the headphones, and wanted something to symbolize music coming out of the headphones. I ended up taking a cabbage leaf, as it is a transparent background, but also provides an interesting, delicate pattern. I then took cooked quinoa and decided that I was going to use it to represent the music coming out of the headphones. After finishing this assignment, I realized that this photogram reflected myself very well, as I already mentioned, I love music, and nutrition. I used food that I incorporate in my diet frequently, which are healthy and really do resemble my attitude towards life. 

breakin' the rulez

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As a new photography student, remembering all of the rules and boundaries in photography, AND being able to incorporate them all into my photos is a challenging task. You could imagine that it was a huge relief to hear that our assignment was to break the rules of photography. I really enjoyed taking the photos for this project, and was very pleased with my products.
 The first picture, is taken of a friend fixing a frame. She is behind a chaotic background of various watercolour paintings, which I loved, and considered to be a unique background. The placement of the chair, pottery wheel and cabinet are what break the rules in this photo. All of the objects draw your attention to them easily, but they suit the style of the picture, making it a good photo, even though it is not composed of properly according to the books. 
The second picture is taken of another friend breaking the rules of the art room, and putting tape on the desk. I found this idea of a photo fun, as I love unposed pictures of people doing creative things. This photo breaks the rules, because of the various objects spread on the desks, the tilted angle of the shot, the objects in the far background, and the fact that the model's body in the photo is cut off awkwardly. 
The last picture is captured with another friend as a model, in front of disorderly shelves of items. I think this photo is exceptional, because of the face of the model fitting into the theme of the picture. With a very messy, and artistic background, the model's facial expression almost looks as if he understands that his space is in disarray, but doesn't really care. This photo breaks the rules of photography, as the bookshelf acts as a merger behind the model's head, the randomly placed chair to the right of him, and the placement of the cabinet to the left of him with distracting books on top of it. 

The Virgin and Child with St. Melissa

face model: Melissa Mendes

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The painting from the Renaissance I chose to Photoshop my friend Melissa’s face into, was The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci was born in Vinci, Italy, on April 15, 1452. The first four years of his life were spent in a small village near Vinci with his mother, Caterina. After 1457, he lived in his father's family, which soon moved to Florence. Leonardo became an apprentice of the Florentine painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio at the age of 15, until 1480. His first known work, which he painted as an assistant, is the angel, kneeling on the left of the Verrocchio's picture The Baptism of Christ (c.1472-1475). Verrocchio, it is said, was so impressed by the implications of his pupil's genius that he gave up painting.By the age of 20, he qualified as a master artist in the Guild of St. Luke and established his own workshop. Leonardo’s most well-known painting, arguably the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa, was a privately commissioned work and was completed sometime between 1505 and 1507.

Leonardo has been called a genius and the archetypal Renaissance man, as his talents extended far beyond his artistic works. Like many leaders of Renaissance humanism, he did not see a divide between science and art, as he drew some of the first body structure drawings on record, such as a fetus in utero, the heart and vascular system, sex organs, and other bone and muscular structures. His observations and inventions were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, including designs for flying machines, plant studies, war machinery, anatomy and architecture. His ideas were mainly theoretical explanations, and were rarely experimental, as they were laid out in exacting detail. One of his last commissioned works was a mechanical lion that could walk and open its chest to reveal a bouquet of lilies. 

The virgin and child with St. Anne is an oil painting on wood, measuring 168x130 cm, by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1510. The original is currently located at Musee de Louvre, Paris. This painting shows St. Anne, her daughter the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus Christ. Christ is shown grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion whilst the Virgin tries to restrain him.  The painting was commissioned as the high altarpiece for the Church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence, with its theme keeping Leonardo preoccupied for a long time. Leonardo first explored the topic of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne around about 1498.

Renaissance Changing Art

The meaning of the time period “Renaissance” is rebirth. The Renaissance occurred during the 14^th and 17^th centuries. The artists of the Renaissance looked back to those before them while incorporating a greater sense of light and color through new mediums. This time period’s artistic movement was the most contributed to development of art as a whole. Prior to the renaissance, the paintings appeared flat and lacked luster, with subjects lacking depth and perspective and religious in nature. Artists had the same position in society as any other skilled craftsmen and were given as much respect as carpenters and goldsmiths. The Renaissance was the beginning to a new interest in Greek and Roman culture, which led to and explosion in knowledge about the human for along with innovations in mathematics and science. All creations of God and the human form in particular, were suddenly respected as a testament to God’s great power and perfection. The nude human form, linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, and a new found interest in observing the natural world represent the movement of the creations. Artists of the Renaissance were elevated in social status, and their works were viewed as miraculous creations that were greatly inspired, rather than looked upon as crafts. 

Painting with Light

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Within the past year, I have seen many pictures of people with bright light lines above or around them, spelling out words or resembling figures. I was so intrigued by these images, and was always curious as to how to create such a thing. Going into this project was exciting, as I had the perfect opportunity to experiment with painting with light.

I went into the darkroom for one period, and came out completely satisfied with this one picture. This was my first picture, which I assumed was going to be a complete tester and experimental piece while creating it. 

I really enjoy this picture, because of the crazy and random lines forming a realistic looking picture. The majority of painting with light pictures I see are very surreal looking pictures, as their concept was surreal. I find my picture more realistic because the picture portrays the image of a science lab, with different forms of light from and experiment coming out from the overhead machines which could also resemble overhead lamps. I really enjoy the shadow of the light on the black shinny surface of the table, as it is the main feature reason why the picture look realistic.