In addition to my senior credits in photo and cermaics I am taking Studio Lighting with Woody Packard–a digital photo class that focusses on, go figure, lighting subjects. We are not very far into the class thus far but I am loving it. I have never had any real experience with digital photo and I’m finding the immediate feedback extremely useful. We’re just experimenting with the physics of how light travels for now and building in new techniques each week–it’s a slow process but I’m enjoying seeing the puzzle come together. Maybe some day I will understand how to put it all together and make a beautiful image.
One photographer we glanced at for inspiration in the class was Irving Penn–a name I recognized but couldn’t place any work with. Woody didn’t spend much time and wasn’t even sure if Penn was still alive but I was interested so I looked him up for myself later. Turns out, he’s still kickin’
I am really attracted the the graphic quality of his images especially the woman on the Vogue cover (below) and another image of his that is actually very similar in layout of a bit of a plant but I couldn’t find a version to post. The portrait of Pablo Picasso was interesting to me because Woody had just been talking about providing a wash of light on the background to bring out the form in front. I really enjoy the progression of a light background and dark figure to a lighter figure and a darker background. The lighting gives the portrait a lot of character. In the last image I posted of the men from New Guinea Penn decided to show the edge of his backdrop in the portrait. The choice is obviously intentional and I found several other images where he did the same. He is making no attempt to show these men in a natural habitat and it makes for an interesting kind of contrast between the people in the image and the scenery.
