Irving Penn - Black and White Portraits

Irving Penn is a famous American photographer well-known for portraits, fashion photography and still life's. Here I am looking at three of his portraiture photographs, 'Nadja Auermann Vogue', 'Freckles' and 'Al Pacino, New York, 1995'. All of these photos are taken in black and white, as are his other photographs. I personally really like Irving Penn's photographs as I feel they all look really professional. The photographs can make anyone professional and like a 'model'. 

This first photo, 'Al Pacino, New York, 1995', to me, looks professional. His hair is styled quite 'funky' and looks quite 'windswept',  his face looks bright however the rest of him looks rather dark. There is the presence of 'counter lighting' in the photo; the light in the back ground (left to right) goes dark to light, and in the foreground (his face) goes light to dark. The lighting is opposite in the background to the foreground. It creates a contrast that looks really effective and brings out the face. It also creates a silhouette of his head and the shape of his shoulders.  

This photo has the same counter-lighting effect. The name of this photo is 'Nadja Auermann Vogue'. This photo, in my opinion, looks very glamorous and again, professional. The lighting effect on this photo highlights her face and makes her eyes stand out. Again, her hair looks windswept and the photo looks very posed, especially with her using her hand to hold her face up, the photo looks quite elegant. 

In this final photo, 'Freckles', the photo is more close-up and shows more detail of the face. The title is very obvious as the main attraction in this photo except the eyes are the freckles. I personally like this photo as I have freckles and long eyelashes, and the freckles are made to stand out in this photo and are still made beautiful. Also, the whole face is well lit and and has very bright highlights. Also, this photo looks very 'vogue' in the way she is looking and posing. She looks to have a confident attitude and has her hand on her face.