Irving Penn: Platinum Prints

by Irving Penn, Sarah Greenough

In a career that spans more than fifty years, photographer Irving Penn has created some of the most arresting portraits, influential fashion studies, and provocative still lifes of the twentieth century. Although much of his work was undertaken for reproduction in magazines, since the early 1960s he has also made a limited number of platinum/palladium prints of his most celebrated photographs. A meticulous craftsman, Penn has experimented extensively with this process in order to make prints with remarkably subtle, rich tonal ranges and luxurious textures; prints that are, in fact, the exact opposite of the more neutral reproductions of his photographs that appear in the popular press.

Included in this handsomely designed and beautifully produced book are platinum/palladium prints of some of Penn’s most important photographs: portraits of Pablo Picasso, David Smith, Saul Steinberg, and Marcel Duchamp; studies of indigenous peoples in New Guinea and Peru; innovative still lifes; in addition to examples of his celebrated fashion studies.

Genres: Photography

200 pages, Hardcover

First published July 10, 2005

About the author

Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his portraiture and fashion photography.

Reviews

[Philippe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Undoubtedly Irving Penn was one of the most sophisticated and elegant modernists to grace the history of photography. His talent to let all of his subjects sparkle - as if seen ‚with the eyes of the New World’ - continues to mesmerize.

This book was published in conjunction with a 2005 exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, to celebrate the photographer’s donation of one hundred platinum prints to the museum.

Having started his career as house photographer at Vogue, Penn came to alternative darkroom methods in the 1960s as a result of burgeoning crisis in the magazine industry and the increasing in-house competition from photographers such as Richard Avedon. In addition to his commercial work, Penn started to experiment with printing in platinum (actually a platinum/palladium mixture) to produce sweeter and more luminous prints than was possible with traditional methods. The old techniques provided him with a way to explore hidden possibilities in some of his earlier negatives. Later he also produced still lifes specifically for platinum printing. Curator Sarah Greenough’s lead essay provides a detailed and incisive discussion of Penn’s darkroom explorations. They stretched over decades and demonstrate an extraordinary level of fastidiousness and creativity.

Penn’s platinum prints offer a wonderful traversal of his whole oeuvre. The book shows fashion studies, still lifes, portraits and a single nude. Included also is a series of collages, composed of strips of testing materials that Penn accumulated over years of darkroom experimentation. In their layered and rhapsodic complexity these are rather unusual works for a photographer who always sought extreme control over the conditions in which images were produced.

This book has been exquisitely produced, fully in the spirit of perfectionism that was so dear to Penn. Matthew Monk signed for the wonderfully balanced design. The book has been outstandingly printed by Dr. Cantz’sche Druckerei in Germany. Robert J. Hennessey, a top expert in the art of color separation, prepared the photographic images for print. A lustrous, ivory paper has been selected that harmonizes wonderfully with the toned pictures. As a result of all these judicious choices the images display a remarkable liveliness and depth. They really leap off the page!

[since1968 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can be hard to find, but properly printed. Low contrast, high detail portraits of wonder.