[Beautiful Picture] Extremely Simple Black And White Paris Mark On A Simple Background

Tilleen

Fashion practitioners travel between the European continent irregularly.

1. Irving Penn's photography becomes a teaching book for portrait photography.

2. Model of "Small Trades" photography series, from Paris street Business owners.

3. The classic cover shot by Irving Penn for Vogue. This effect was unimaginable before the era of drawing repair.

Last October, I excitedly planned to visit the French version of the Champs Elysees《 Vogue 》On the morning of the 90th anniversary cover exhibition, I heard that the master photographer Irving Penn had died in his New York apartment the night before. The next spring, I will see the name Irving Penn again in Paris, but this time it has nothing to do with fashion. The authentic photography of "Small Trades", the most classic work series of the master besides fashion photography, finally came to Paris after half a century, and quietly unveiled the veil in a three storey building in a secret corner of the 14th District.

Irving Penn, a boy who once aspired to become a painter, studied painting diligently, but when he felt that he did not have enough talent for painting, he burned all his paintings. He opened the door of Vogue by shooting scenes in the willows unintentionally, and began his legendary cooperation experience with this magazine for more than 60 years, as well as the record of 165 Vogue covers that were talked about by later generations. Of course, his relationship with France is also very deep. Even if not talking about his career, he often traveled to New York and Paris to shoot the French version of Vogue. Henri Cartier Bresson, the late owner of the Paris Photography Exhibition Hall, was regarded by Irving Penn as one of the photographers who had the deepest influence on himself. Irving Penn, who first got the inspiration to shoot this series from the work of French photographer Eugene Atget, took the opportunity to shoot advanced customized pictures for the American version of Vogue in Paris in 1950, and started the creation of this series with every inch of it. In fact, it was also for the sake of keeping a record of the disappearing professions in France. At that time, Penn, with the help of friends, searched the streets of Paris for ordinary workers as models; From cucumber vendors to shoemakers, from restaurant foremen to firefighters, they are invited to the studio without exception; They take the clothes of their ordinary work and present the simplest appearance of the profession and its practitioners under the unchanged simple background. For Irving Penn, the studio is such a pure and equal space that there is no distinction between high and low, whether fashion models or nude models, celebrities or ordinary people. In his extremely simple black and white pictures against a simple background, the personality or fresh emotions of the individuals photographed are so clearly and accurately expressed, and the photographer is so objective, and the direct communication with the audience may be the reason why the master became a master.

After leaving Paris, Irving Penn continued to work on the same principles in London and New York. Interestingly, some people who are engaged in the same occupation in the three cities show subtle differences in their psychological state in front of the master's camera. Even the photographer himself mentioned in an interview the difference in people's reaction to the shooting in the three cultures. For example, the French will basically be skeptical about the invitation to shoot, although most of them will go there at last; The British feel that this kind of shooting is natural, and they will appear in the studio in full armor on time, and face the camera proudly; Before filming, Americans spared no effort to dress up and put on holiday clothes, intending to take this filming as the first step towards Hollywood... In 1951, the French version of Vogue was the first to release the immortal series of masters. This special issue entitled "Paris 2000 Years Old" shows ordinary workers from all walks of life in Paris in Irving Penn's lens in three pages, although they have no direct relationship with fashion. However, by comparing the pictures placed in the exhibition hall at the same time, you can clearly smell the difference between the old and the new world from their different clothing styles: the workers from Paris and London, even those who sell newspapers or cheese are all shirts and ties, and the clothes under the aprons are carefully decorated and meticulous to the best of their ability; Most of the working people in New York can be identified by their so-called "work uniforms", such as one-piece work clothes and white coats. Their professional characteristics are more obvious. Of course, the American and British versions of Vogue published their part of the series respectively; It can be seen that in that era, Vogue focused on not only the fashion circle that has become bizarre, but at least these real, less metaphysical people. They will become an immortal part of history like all kinds of fashion styles, and at some time, they will become the inspiration source of fashion designers, and make a comeback in another way. {page_break}

On the second floor of the exhibition, I saw a short paragraph describing how the masters at that time used platinum to develop and print some pictures in this series. At the beginning of the 20th century, this kind of printing method was basically abandoned because of its high cost and complexity. Irving Penn picked up this technology for this series, which can make the pictures almost indelible, and gave the black and white of this series a stronger contrast, a richer gray scale and a fuller impact through exquisite processing, And their life span can be closer to eternity. Irving Penn was also a leader among the only people who could master this extremely difficult printing technology in that era. His immortal works that have been permanently remembered in the history of photography, whether the portraits of Picasso or Saint Laurent, the human body of Kate Moss or the textbook like covers, will continue to be looked up and worshipped by future generations, and this casual understanding of the details will move me even more. Maybe today's digital cameras and photoshop can imitate this effect, but they can no longer reach this height, because in that era, becoming a master photographer depended on talent, and the efforts paid were more than geometric multiples. Perhaps this is why today Irving Penn or Richard Avedon are honored on the altar, but masters can hardly expect the waves after the Yangtze River.