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Quote by Irving Penn

“Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is one they would like to show the world very often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe.”

Quote by Irving Penn

Author

Irving Penn, an American photographer renowned for his exquisite fashion and portrait photography. His work spans multiple genres, including fashion, portrait, still life, and documentary photography. Penn's influence on the photography world is profound, and his work is still widely studied and appreciated today. more

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“A beautiful print is a thing in itself, not just a halfway house on the way to the page.”

Way Beautiful House Photography Pages Print Halfway

Book:Irving Penn master images: the collections of the National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery

Source: Irving Penn master images: the collections of the National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery

“Most of the time the ones who dislike the pictures the most confirm to me that the picture has hit home and is probably truer than I know. Nobody minds a boring picture, they mind a picture that has gotten to the soft core.”

Knows Mind Home Boring Core Dislike

Author:Irving Penn

“I myself have always stood in the awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel.”

Cameras Instruments Awe Scalpels

Author:Irving Penn

“I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children.”

Knows Way Children Care Wife Photographer Take Care My Wife Best Way Professional Photographer

Author:Irving Penn

“Over the years I must have spent thousands of hours silently brushing on the liquid coatings, preparing each sheet in anticipation of reaching the perfect print.”

Years Hours Perfect Reaching Print Anticipation Preparing Sheets Liquid Brushing

Book:Irving Penn: Small Trades

Source: Irving Penn: Small Trades

“Many photographers feel their client is the subject. My client is a woman in Kansas who reads Vogue. I'm trying to intrigue, stimulate, feed her. My responsibility is to the reader. The severe portrait that is not the greatest joy in the world to the subject may be enormously interesting to the reader.”

World Feels Trying May Joy Interesting Responsibility Subjects Reader Photographer Clients Portraits Severe Intrigue Kansas Vogue

Author:Irving Penn

“I can get obsessed by anything if i look at it long enough. That's the curse of being a photographer.”

Ifs Looks Long Art I Can Enough Seeing Photography Photographer Curse Obsessed

Author:Irving Penn

“I've tried a few times to depart from what I know I can do, and I've failed. I've tried to work outside the studio, but it introduces too many variables that I can't control. I'm really quite narrow, you know.”

Knows I Can Can Do Work Out Studios Introducing Variables

Author:Irving Penn

“The world is my country. Science my religion.”

World Inspirational Country

Author:Christiaan Huygens

“I find that the old Roman baths of this quarter, were found covered by an old burying ground, belonging to the Abbey; through which, in all probability, the water drains in its passage; so that as we drink the decoction of the living bodies at the Pump-room, we swallow the strainings of rotten bones and carcasses at the private bath - I vow to God, the very idea turns my stomach!”

Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Tobias Smollett: Sir Launcelot Greaves. Humphry Clinker