This past summer I stumbled upon Irving Penn’s portraits. I was astonished and after looking through hundreds of images I was so affected by the diverse and ingenious ways someone can depict the human face using only black and white photography and a very uninvolved background. It was hard for me to choose one photograph that I found more engaging than the others so I chose two photographs that I think portray some of the best characteristics of Penn’s style, the first one, “Truman Capote, New York” taken in 1965 and the second “Jean Cocteau, Paris” taken in 1948. In both pieces the use of black and white is so brilliantly executed. The light sources are extremely strong, which forces the objects in the dark to completely converge into intriguing black solid shapes, while the lights beautifully frame the figures, such as Jean Cocteau’s face. In addition, the ways that the bodies fill the compositions is very dynamic and linear. He is not afraid of bold cropping or sharp angles. The poses the models are striking are unusual and unnatural but we don’t question it because the shapes that their bodies and clothing create are intensely intriguing and beautiful. Penn somehow captured the individuality of these famous figures while also balancing a very posed and superficial kind of environment.

During our trip to New York I was also very affected by Barkley Hendricks’s painting “What’s Going On” painted in 1974. As we discussed in the gallery, the fact that the background is solid white, wipes out any kind of context or place and we are left with only the depiction of the figures. What I find so interesting with the stark contrast between the figures and the background, is the small exciting details and moments that are highlighted as a result, like the women’s intertwined hands with the red nail polish against the man’s jacket or the translucent lens of the man on the far right’s red sunglasses against the background. The figures are forced together in this strange compilation of bodies yet none of them interact. Each figure looks in a different direction and takes on a different action yet the space and distance between each figure is instantly erased because of the blending of their clothes into the background.