Irving Penn Options

[Howard Efner]

Irving Penn has passed on at the age of 92.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8296030.stm

Howard

[richsul]

Saw this earlier. Thanks for posting.

My one Penn anecdote:

Back in the early 90's Penn was having a show of platinums at ICP in NYNY. Dick Arentz was at the same time teachins a platinum workshop there. DIck was asked to do a gallery talk on platinum printing. Penn had a hissy fit and had Dick's talk cancelled. Penn also refused to do a gallery talk on platinum. From what I've heard, this was typical Penn.

I have good reason to believe he never did any of his own platinum printing, but he made all the motions like he did.

--Dick

Irving Penn has passed on at the age of 92.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8296030.stm

Howard

[Gordon Mark]

Saw this earlier. Thanks for posting.

My one Penn anecdote:

Back in the early 90's Penn was having a show of platinums at ICP in NYNY. Dick Arentz was at the same time teachins a platinum workshop there. DIck was asked to do a gallery talk on platinum printing. Penn had a hissy fit and had Dick's talk cancelled. Penn also refused to do a gallery talk on platinum. From what I've heard, this was typical Penn.

I have good reason to believe he never did any of his own platinum printing, but he made all the motions like he did.

--Dick

I didn't make any difference to me who did the prints but an exhibit of the large gloves and cigartte butts at the art center in pasadena was what got me into platium.
gordon

[sklimek]

I didn't make any difference to me who did the prints but an exhibit of the large gloves and cigartte butts at the art center in pasadena was what got me into platium.
gordon

I saw the cigarette butt and glove series as well. The X-large cig butts (40 X 60" or more) were mounted on aluminum and hung from fish line ‘floating’. Very contrasty and had a charcoal effect. I heard that he had a special adhesive made from Monsanto for the mounting to the aluminum (don’t know). I read an article once that after a day of shooting for Vogue he had a small bag in his coat specifically for picking up any cig buttes that started catching his eye…

For me in the world of photography Penn held a special place, not only could he do the Vogue still life cosmetic ads but cross over and do timeless fashion at a drop of the hat and still see the potential of used up cigarette butts on the street as he waited for the train to take him home.

I guess you can tell I really admired him…

Stan

[vaughn]

I saw a platinum print of his -- about 16x16 -- at a gallery in Carmel in the late 80's. It was an image of two dressed up small South American kids. It was a beautiful image and print!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MgQ5mHQZkhA/SJ8P...eruChildren.jpg

RIP

[John Jarosz]

I've seen that image at the Art Institute of Chicago. Can't remember if it was a Penn show or some kind of assembly of different photographers. The story that went with that was that Penn set up a small studio and then invited people to pose for him. When word got out that he was paying to photograph them the place got jammed with locals trying to get in on the action.

I don't remember that the print I saw was platinum. I think I would have remembered that. Hmmmm.

John