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Thread: Irving Penn's 8x10?

  1. #1
    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Irving Penn's 8x10?

    I ran across this image of Irving Penn with an 8x10 studio camera today and wondered, was this one of his working cameras? Or just something he posed with and never used? Anyone?
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    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    Irving Penn was a technical master. He used a variety of cameras. It could be his one of his working cameras. But he most frequently used large format view cameras.

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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    The photo looks like it was taken in the Cuzco photo studio that he rented for a few days in 1948 (info from Worlds in a Small Room). The camera was the original proprietor's. Maybe Penn used it, but I doubt it.

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    Ray Van Nes
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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    I believe Irving used mostly a Rollei twin lens and occasionally for personal work, a 12 x20. The camera picture is indeed the proprietor's. I have the book about his platinum prints and it mentions the trip to Cuzco.

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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    It's an interesting question. Penn may well have used a studio camera for his studio portraits (if not that one). They would have been well-suited to his portraiture style. I believe that he used Rolleis for location projects like 'Worlds in a Small Room' and perhaps 'Small Trades'.
    Last year I saw a large retrospective of his work at the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian) in Washington DC; spectacular work and much of it was obviously LF.
    Some research is in order...

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    Pieter's Avatar
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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    That photo is on the cover of "Irving Penn Centennial." It is a self-portrait, shot in the studio he rented in Cuzco, Peru in 1948. It doesn't look like he is holding a release in his hand, so I believe the camera we see is a prop and he used a camera with a timer to shoot it, not shot in a mirror. I'm guessing a Rolleiflex.
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer View Post
    I ran across this image of Irving Penn with an 8x10 studio camera today and wondered, was this one of his working cameras? Or just something he posed with and never used? Anyone?

  7. #7
    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    With Denny's clue that the image was from Penn's assignment in Cuzco, I tracked down an image of him using what seems to be his usual TLR on a smaller tripod in the Cuzco studio. But there's a second tantalizing image of the 8x10 in a using position in the same studio, pointed at subjects of a known Penn image. So we can only speculate...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Irving Penn in Cuzco, Peru, 1948.jpg   irving-penn-cuzco-man,-woman-and-crying-infant.jpg   Penn, Cuzco.jpg  
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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    Yes, but its square, so my speculation is it's a tlr image.

    What a great studio!
    Real cameras are measured in inches...
    Not pixels.

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    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    Quote Originally Posted by dsphotog View Post
    Yes, but its square, so my speculation is it's a tlr image.

    What a great studio!
    I suspect you're right, though it's a shame not to indulge yourself with such a camera and lens. I would have, so maybe he did...

    And yeah, a classic 19th century skylight studio in 1948 Cuzco, Peru. I suppose they use south light on that side of the equator...
    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

  10. #10
    Tim Sandstrom
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    Re: Irving Penn's 8x10?

    Quote Originally Posted by dsphotog View Post
    What a great studio!
    That looks like Martín Chambi's studio...

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