Ginger Photography: Unit 208-Theme 2- Irving Penn ,Portrait Photographer.

Irving Penn : Small Trades .

The pictures I have chosen are from a series of portraits that Irving Penn created in 1950-51 called "Small Trades" this set of images relates to my portrait unit 208- theme 2 . My set of photographs related to this theme is called The Butcher ,The Baker And The Candle Stick-Maker .

Irving Penn born in 1917 .Penn was an American photographer and was renown for his sophisticated fashion images an incisive portraits. Irving Penn was brother to motion picture director Arthur Penn ,Irving intended to become a painter but at the age of 26 his work took a different path . Irving took a job designing a photographic cover for the magazine Vogue ,Penn decided that he would start to put his own stamp on the covers and soon established himself as a fashion photographer. In 1950 Penn married , Lisa Fonssagrives , a model whom he had photographed and produced some of his best work. The images that Penn had produced portrayed elegance and luxury ,with exceptional compositional refinement and clarity rather than the norm of elaborate props and backdrops. Penn became an influential portraitist ,he photographed many celebrities ,they would sit for hours whilst Penn produced the image that portrayed their personalities to the camera In his portraits the subject is usually posed in front of a plain back-ground ,in natural light from a northernly direction with formal sophistication .A series of photographs produced in 1950-51 were called "Small Trades " these shots were of laborers in New York , Paris and London ,they posed formerly in their occupational uniforms /work wear holding the tools of their trade.

Three hundred of Penns pictures were published in a book called Moments Preserved (1960) he also produced other books including Worlds in a Small Room (1974) ,a collection of portraits of people he came across in remote foreign regions .In 1996 Penn donated his archives to the Art Institute Of Chicago .

Penn's studio.

All of the portraits below are shot with plain backgrounds they show the subject in the uniform /work wear which portrays the occupation in which the subject works .