Irving Penn: Still Life Photography

American photographer, Irving Penn was an extraordinary fashion and portraiture photographer. A common theme throughout the entirety of his body of work is capturing the essence of whatever is in front of the camera. He revolutionized the world of photography with his simple style, always photographing on a blank background. Aside from his work in fashion and portraiture, Penn also branched and did work in the area of still lifes. He believed “A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart, and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it; it is in one word, effective” (Columbia). Irving Penn was born on the 16th of June in 1917 in the city of Plainfield, New Jersey. After years of public schooling, he would
The style has forced photography to take down the wall between studios and the world, concentrating on matters of everyday life. Viewers of a painting or drawing are encouraged to ask how, and by who created the piece, however, those viewing a still life rather ask “what act or chain of events brought this object into focus”
By 1967, he began an annual series of flower photographs. Each year Penn would select a different species of flower. Through this, he represents the different stages of a just bloomed flower to one that has died and been dried out. He would continue this series until 1973. His next series showed close up shots of discarded cigarette butts, this is done in 1972 and was also his first series that was done entirely printed with platinum negatives. Vintage couture clothing on mannequins came next in 1974, followed by sidewalk debris in 1975. From 1979-1980 his still lifes focused on using the vanita tradition (Timeline), or otherwise known as art that always indicate to mortality most commonly done through the use of bones (Vanitas). Finally in 1986, he would travel to the National Museum of Prague and photograph different animal