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

Irving Penn: Seeing Inside

He got beneath the surface of people — and things.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/magazine/27Penn-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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.