via Vogue - Exalted though the name Irving Penn may be in the worlds of fashion and photography, the man himself has always preferred the flip side of fame—privacy almost to the point of anonymity.
In his 60-odd-year career, Penn has rarely given in to the curiosity of a journalist and has almost never allowed himself to become the subject of a photograph, even one of his own—all too wary, perhaps, of just how much can be revealed in a click. “I don’t want to be a ‘personage,’ ” he explains (although that hasn’t stopped him from photographing some of the most seminal personalities of our time). From the beginning, however, he has been unusually open about one thing: the secrets of his craft, discovered through a love of experimentation with light and long hours in the darkroom, secured, perhaps, by the thought that the most important ingredient in capturing a soul—whether it belongs to a dress or a person or a piece of meat—is part of the same mystery that can’t be known. - read more here...
Richard Avedon 1978
Pablo Picasso 1957
Kate Moss
Big Brother & The Holding Company & The Grateful Dead. San Francisco 1967
