The portrait photographer that I chose to emulate was Irving Penn. He was born in Plainfield, New Jersey and lived in New York until his death in 2009. Irving Penn attented the Philadephia Museum School of Industrial Art, now simply known as the University of the Arts. He attended from 1934 to 1938. At this school he studied drawing, painting, graphics, and industrial arts under Alexey Brodovitch, a Russian photographer, designer, and instructor. Penn was a commercial photographer who worked for Vogue magazine, General Foods, De Beers, and Clinique. His main subjects were fashion, portraits, and still lifes.
I chose to emulate Irving Penn because I think his portraits are simple, yet stunning, which is why I chose to emulate a portrait of Audrey Hepburn from 1951. I had my model sit on a stool and pose similar to how Audrey is posed in the photograph on the left. In the photo of Audrey, the light is coming from the right side of the picture. In my photo, I tried to create the same effect by shooting it near a window, although the shadows on the left side of Audrey's face are not portrayed in my photo. There are both highlights and shadows to both photos. In mine, there is a lot of contrast between the white background and the black of Connie's sweater. My photo is slightly over-exposed because of the white backdrop. I feel like Penn's photo is slightly under-exposed. There is a duller tone to his photo, although you have to take into consideration that it was captured on film. The photo is completely focused on the model in both pictures, and there isn't much of a sense of depth of field in either, since the background is so plain. To take the photo, I positioned the camera slightly downward to capture Connie's hair, which is the reason why I chose her to emulate this portrait in the first place. My photo is asymmetrical and does not really demonstrate the rule of thirds since Connie takes up most of the frame. She is the clear focal point of the photo, and I made sure that the background was plain so it did not take away from the model. When taking the photo, I shot it horizontally and later cropped it to the dimensions of Penn's portrait of Audrey. There aren't any leading lines in this photo, which forces you to focus on the model rather than the background. The photo is not necessarily creative, I think that the point of view of this picture is common but this is what makes it unique at the same time. It is very simple, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is boring. The simplicity of it allows you to soak in the beauty of the models, rather than looking at distracting things in the background. I think that it creates a feeling of happiness, since both Audrey and Connie have smiles on their faces. The most successful thing about the photo is that the sweaters and hair are similar. Although Connie's hair is shorter than Audrey's, it is more successful than if I would have used a model with long hair. To improve my photo I could have chosen a backdrop that was darker and positioned Connie's head so it was facing more towards the camera.
I chose to emulate Irving Penn because I think his portraits are simple, yet stunning, which is why I chose to emulate a portrait of Audrey Hepburn from 1951. I had my model sit on a stool and pose similar to how Audrey is posed in the photograph on the left. In the photo of Audrey, the light is coming from the right side of the picture. In my photo, I tried to create the same effect by shooting it near a window, although the shadows on the left side of Audrey's face are not portrayed in my photo. There are both highlights and shadows to both photos. In mine, there is a lot of contrast between the white background and the black of Connie's sweater. My photo is slightly over-exposed because of the white backdrop. I feel like Penn's photo is slightly under-exposed. There is a duller tone to his photo, although you have to take into consideration that it was captured on film. The photo is completely focused on the model in both pictures, and there isn't much of a sense of depth of field in either, since the background is so plain. To take the photo, I positioned the camera slightly downward to capture Connie's hair, which is the reason why I chose her to emulate this portrait in the first place. My photo is asymmetrical and does not really demonstrate the rule of thirds since Connie takes up most of the frame. She is the clear focal point of the photo, and I made sure that the background was plain so it did not take away from the model. When taking the photo, I shot it horizontally and later cropped it to the dimensions of Penn's portrait of Audrey. There aren't any leading lines in this photo, which forces you to focus on the model rather than the background. The photo is not necessarily creative, I think that the point of view of this picture is common but this is what makes it unique at the same time. It is very simple, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is boring. The simplicity of it allows you to soak in the beauty of the models, rather than looking at distracting things in the background. I think that it creates a feeling of happiness, since both Audrey and Connie have smiles on their faces. The most successful thing about the photo is that the sweaters and hair are similar. Although Connie's hair is shorter than Audrey's, it is more successful than if I would have used a model with long hair. To improve my photo I could have chosen a backdrop that was darker and positioned Connie's head so it was facing more towards the camera.