The Lives They Lived – Irving Penn – He Got Beneath the Surface of People

I didn’t read credits then — or, anyway, not at the start — but soon I realized that I was collecting the work of the photographer Irving Penn. It was his vision that I craved — that I still crave when I think about what photography can be. Whether Penn was shooting a nude, a glove or Truman Capote, he honored the truth of his subjects at a particular moment. He knew that just as a rose’s petals will fall, every moment will fade, but if the photo succeeds, de Kooning’s secrets will remain.