IRVING PENN PHOTOGRAPHY

After looking at different portrait photographers, I realised that I have been exploring a lot of black and white portraits and therefore I feel it necessary to look at the work of American photographer Irving Penn and his signature style high contrast black and white portraiture.
To the left is an image of Al Pacino taken by Penn. The image  was most likely taken in Penn's studio where he has used one source of light from a side angle, Penn was known for using natural light when using his studio but I am unsure if this is natural light or just a simple minimal lighting. The source of light that Penn has decided to place at the side of the subject means that half Al Pacino's face is shadows and the other half is highlights. The high contrast in the image makes the blacks really dominate the image and I believe this is why Penn choose a soft mid tone background. The high contrast also means that the photographs loses some detail therefore the lighting at the side brings that detail back in meaning that his face is really detailed and his hair is at one side then it loses some texture towards the dark side of his face.
I really like the use of high contrast and greyscale colour scheme as with the background it makes it feel like everything is stripped from the subject as there are no colours and his clothes are minimal, I think this makes the image seem more real and the expressions seem less posed.
The image over all has a really dramatic feel to it, this is because of the high contrast making the blacks really black and dominate the image making the image more bold and serious and therefore dramatic.
     To the right is a photograph of Audrey Hepburn taken by Irving Penn for 'Vogue Magazine'. Unlike other portraits taken by Penn, the subject is smiling yet the image still feels pure because of the minimal colours and soft background therefore the smile looks natural and the photograph looks like it is showing us the subjects personality.

I really like the work of Irving Penn and hope to apply some of these ideas to my own Portraiture. I am most inspired by the minimal features and lighting in his images which make the photographs look more natural and as if everything is stripped to just purely show the subject as the subject.