Class: Art4900

Date: 05/08/17

Professor: Howard Klein

Name: Chen Yang

I went to watch the exhibition a week ago and it was really an amazing show. I was

especially impressed by two categories, one is called “ Portraits”, and the other is

called “Fashion”, which includes a series of vogue cover. So for the first category, I

think each photo records the most natural moment of the character. One reason for

having this feeling is because there is barely nothing distract me so that I can focus

only on the person. Most of Penn’s photos are very close to the person’s face and you

can see the details on their face, which on the other side make the character more

outstanding and distinguished. Aside from that, their background is mainly pure, some

of the characters are in a constricted corner space made of two walls placed at an

angle. By producing such an environment, Penn get rid of anything that could distract

from the subject. I personally like the “Ballet Society” a lot, it somehow reminds me

of the movie “Black Swan”. You can see that there is a circle behind the dancer which

is darker than the remained part, and since it was shoot in the corner, it feels like the

dancer has some kind of magic which was spreading around, making the character

more attractive plus mysterious.

The second group I enjoyed a lot is the “Fashion”, I was particularly attracted to the

Vogue covers. Each cover looks so elegant and vintage, with not so many words on it.

Simple but powerful, you will be attracted to it at the first sight. And also the whole

tone of the color is really warm, but clear. If you look at the nine covers you will find

out that there is only one or zero bright color in the picture, the other colors are

usually black, white and grey. So you won’t feel like the cover is too much. Another

piece of work I like a lot is called “Man Lighting Girl’s Cigarette”. I think the most

amazing part of this picture is that bottle of wine in the right front. If without that

bottle, maybe it would still be a good picture but nothing special. I would say what

makes this picture special is how Penn designed this photo---the reflection of the

woman’s face on the bottle, is much in focus than the background. Sometimes people

blur what is truly the important part to make it important. By doing that, you would

probably start to thinking about the woman’s identity, her face, and what is going on

between this two persons. I think when a picture could provoke people’s thoughts

about it, then it must be a really good picture.