Irving Penn - Many Versions of Perfect

We tried something a little different with this episode of the B&H Photography Podcast. We took three writers from our Explora blog along with us as we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the much praised photography retrospective, Irving Penn: Centennial. Upon our return we gathered to talk about the exhibit and the influential work of Irving Penn.

If you love photography, the name Irving Penn should be familiar to you, but this retrospective places equal emphasis on work that falls outside the realm of his famed fashion and portraiture for Vogue Magazine and synthesizes his almost 70 years of photography, acquainting us with his still-life, documentary, nudes, and even street photography, as well as with his skills as a printer.

Along with our guests Cory Rice, Jill Waterman, and Akeem Addy, we talk about the works on view in this retrospective-- what impressed us the most, what confused us, what surprised us, and what we learned about the cohesive strength of composition, light, and gesture in Penn's work and just how influential he has been on all of our photography, whether we realize it or not.

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Rollei Retro 400S Black and White Negative Film

Rollei Ortho 25 Black and White Negative Film

Rollei Black Magic Variable Contrast Liquid Emulsion

Guests: Jill Waterman, Cory Rice, Akeem Addy

Photograph: Pablo Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, 1957 by Irving Penn. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, © The Irving Penn Foundation