Hi everyone,
You probably already know this but there is an Irving Penn career retrospective on view at the Met until July 30. This is some of the most inspired FilmWasting I've had the pleasure of seeing in quite some time. Room after room of no compromise, no bullshit photography. They had his simple old Rolleiflex on display, with the slow lens and an eye piece apparently held in place with gaffers tape.
Penn was a peerless portrait photographer, but also a sensational printer. I didn't have an appreciation of the latter until this show, which thankfully goes into some detail about his methods, including the display of four prints of the same negative side by side, all quite different and equally lovely. The card near the prints mentions "four versions of perfect" or something like that.
It's a photography blockbuster. If you can get there I highly recommend it.
Pictures from a telephone do this show no justice at all but you know that. Oh, and check the lovely videos the Met has shared at the link showing Penn in the field and some darkroom trivia.
http://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2016/irving-penn
