Irving Penn, The Tarot Reader; Vogue’s Eye View of Diablerie, 1949
From the Victoria & Albert Museum:
Irving Penn joined American Vogue in 1943. He worked originally as a designer, but rapidly became one of the magazine’s most significant fashion photographers. Setting glamorous models in unexpected contexts, he evolved a style that was elegant yet informal, with simple lighting and minimal studio setting. The platinum-palladium print technique, perfected by Penn after years of meticulous experimentation, gives an unparalleled range of tone and texture to his images.
The feeling of desperation and unhappiness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness stretch your whole sensibility. Francis Bacon, London, 1962.
