Monday, January 31, 2011

Macro Monday - Emulating Irving Penn


IMG_7934 swiss chard

I've shown you my attempt to channel Paul Cézanne and also one Irving Penn emulation.  Here are a few more photos I turned in for my Beginning Photography class. Our excellent and passionate instructor, Moshe Quinn, gave us an assignment to emulate, but not copy exactly, a photographer or other artist.

Late in his career, Penn photographed took many large-format botanical photographs on a clean white surface. He used exceptionally long exposures with pinhole apertures and experimented with elaborate printing techniques. A great article on Penn's printing techniques can be found here.

IRVING PENN (1917 - 2007)
Ginkgo Leaves, New York, 1990

IRVING PENN (1917 - 2007)
Tuberous Begonia

Here are my emulations:

IMG_7989 cyclamens


IMG_7960 French Breakfast Radishes


IMG_7991 ferns


IMG_7953 cayenne peppers

One of my classmates named her project "It's a Lot Harder Than It Looks!". No kidding. Considering this was my first attempt, I'm not going to complain too much. Thank you, Moshe, for this inspiring assignment. I did learn that I'm very interested in pursuing studio photography and creating more still lifes. Next time I will pay more attention to the lighting.

View more Macro Monday images at lisaschaos.com here. This is my first time posting on Lisa Gordon's Creative Exchange here

45 comments:

California Girl said...

I like them and I'm passing this post to photographer hubby who can't get enough info on everyone's work. He loved the last post you did re: Cezanne/Penn.

Kala said...

I absolutely love the first image you've posted of the the 2 flower petals and stems. The composition is wonderful and I can see Penn's influence in that shot.

CC said...

Love these, especially that huge green and red leaf. The color is killing!

lorilaire said...

Je ne connaissais pas ton post sur Cezanne, belles représentation de "still-life" superbes !!
J'adore, d'ailleurs le week-end prochain, je vais à Paris , je ne sais pas si j'irai encore au musée Marmotan ou le musée D'Orsay
Bisous
lori

msdewberry said...

These vegetable photo shots look good enough to eat! The colour is wonderful! It gives me a few ideas to try myself!
Great shots!

joco said...

What fun.
That bunch of peppers is my favourite.
And I reckon you emulated the artists.
Is this an on-line class or for real?

Marilyn Miller said...

What a fun assignment. Love your photos.

Lisa Gordon said...

These are just fantastic. I am thinking this course must be a lot of fun! I especially love the first one!
Thank you so much for sharing these this week at The Creative Exchange.
Have a wonderful day!

lisa.

dona said...

Very nice photos (yours included!)

Ruth said...

I do like these on a white ground very much. I agree, lighting is so tricky, and a mystery to me, though I'm starting to get it a little. But I still avoid the manual settings, and all that jazz. I will, for now, watch you and admire.

The graduated color of the ferns is wonderful.

I LOVE the placement and composition of the red peppers.

Very nice work!

Pretty Zesty said...

Such beautiful veggies. Love the reds... I'm hungry!

Unknown said...

Well emulated. Doing an emulation like that is a great way to not only appreciate an influential person, but also to get a deeper feel of what they went through to achieve their result. You've done well here. I'm glad to have found your blog!

Pat said...

These are great! I think I'll try it!

Anonymous said...

What a great selection of photos. I really love the clips of cyclamen plants - they could so easily be reproduced as jewellery using semi precious stones, proving the theory that you only have to look to nature for inspiration in art. I also love the small shadows around the fern fronds - makes them look quite 3D. Beautiful. :)

Charlene said...

The pepper idea is very creative and they were all nicely done!

Anonymous said...

these macros are spectacular...I am loving that first image of the leaf...those colors just pop!

Margaret said...

I adore the third photo down of yours - are they radishes? I will have to give this a try. I can only imagine how hard it is to get the light right and the shadows under control. The post below has stunning photo as well!

Susan said...

Gorgeous! I love the chard so much I want to take a bite out of the computer screen!

Angel Rogers said...

Nice shots! Good job on the fresh stuff. the composition is really good and the colors pop! Keep up th egood work!

rochambeau said...

Hello DutchBaby,
What is miraculous about your first shot are the tiny white dots and stripes of white light the water droplets come alive! Great!
Glad you joined the MM group! Your shot is one of the best.
I'm reading Cutting the Stone and really getting into it. Any chance Abraham could come to your book club and speak about how he came to write his book? That would be cool!!
When is S going to be on Nova?
Happy Evening to you and Yours!

xox
Constance

Relyn Lawson said...

My favorite of both yours and Irving's was number two. Well done.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear California Girl,
Thank you! I hope your husband doesn't look too closely.

Funny thing about that Cezanne post. It got linked on a popular website and it quickly became my most visited post of all time.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Kala,
That was a very nice compliment. Thank you!

Dutchbaby said...

Dear CC,
Thank you! The kale was delicious!

Dutchbaby said...

Cher lorilaire,
Merci beaucoup!

Quelle chance! Est-il possible, vous pouvez aller aux deux musées?

Dutchbaby said...

Dear msdewberry,
Welcome to Dutchbaby and thank you for leaving your kind comment. I would love to see your vegetable photos!

Dutchbaby said...

Dear joco,
I took the class at our local junior college. It was half in person and half on-line. Thank you for your visit and welcome to Dutchbaby!

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Marilyn,
It was a fun assignment. I learned so much - mostly I learned what I still have to learn.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear lisa,
Thank you for hosting the Creative Exchange and for bringing along the creative guests here!

The class was fun but also very time-consuming.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear dona,
Thank you very much! Benvenuti a Dutchbaby!

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Ruth,
I'm afraid the lighting's a mystery to me too. I must confess, it was the least of my concerns. I was too busy trying to make sure I had the proper exposure with the image in focus. You should have seen the contraption I rigged up for my camera. It involved my monopod, a step ladder, and bungee cords.

I'm glad you like my cayenne pepper shot. I tried photographing them individually, but they looked far better in a bundle.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Kris,
Thank you. Your butternut squash soup made me hungry. Be careful of those cayenne peppers; they are super hot!

Dutchbaby said...

Dear John S. Mead,
Thank you very much for your kind feedback. I agree that emulation is a great means to gain renewed respect for the artist.

I am glad to have found your blog too. Your photos are spectacular and you've traveled to many interesting places in the world.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Pat,
I would love to see your emulation!

Ginnie Hart said...

This really reminds me of what I call 'textbook' photography, DB. I think you've done an excellent job first time around. And yes, you're inspiring me, too. :)

Dutchbaby said...

Dear angelcel,
Thank you. Cyclamen jewelry would be beautiful - great idea!

Dutchbaby said...

Dear angelcel,
Oops, I forgot to welcome you to Dutchbaby.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Charlene,
Thank you! I'm glad I learned about edge tension in this class. Welcome to Dutchbaby!

Dutchbaby said...

Dear tchesney,
The Swiss chard is as delicious as it looks.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Margaret,
Those are French breakfast radishes. I bet they are good on a piece of toast, though I like use them sliced thinly in a salad. Frankly, I paid very little attention to the lighting. My immediate goal was to get a clean focused image. Now that I look at Penn's images, I see that he has very deliberate stark shadows. I placed my subjects underneath the two pendulum lights that hang above my kitchen island, thus I have ambiguous shadows.

Thank you for your encouragement. Your words are very good for my self esteem.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Susan,
Oooh, if you did, you may end up with chard shards :-/

Dutchbaby said...

Dear A. Rogers photo,
Thank you for your words of encouragement! Welcome to Dutchbaby!

Dutchbaby said...

Dear rochambeau,
Thank you for pointing out those details of the reflected water drops. I had noticed that Irving Penn often had water drops on his flowers.

I'm definitely enjoying "Cutting for Stone". It turns out that Abraham Verghese is scheduled to speak at our local independent book store, Kepler's, in a couple of months. I will suggest to my book club that we all attend.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Relyn,
Thanks! It really helps me when people tell me what speaks to them.

Dutchbaby said...

Dear Ginnie,
Thank you - I'm very comfortable around textbooks. My father worked for Elsevier, a textbook publisher, when we lived in Amsterdam.

It would be great to see your renditions. You have all those glorious flowers at your disposal.

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