Irving Penn, “Truman Capote, New York”, 1965 (Printed 1986), Platinum-Palladium Print, Edition of 20, Art Institute of Chicago

“Irving Penn’s portraits reflect a sensitivity to spatial arrangement that he retained for much of his career. For these portraits, Penn preferred a studio environment to actual locations. In more remote locations he actually constructed flimsy tents, which seems odd considering he had travelled to remote sites only to bring his subjects indoors. There, he created an environment that allowed the subject collaborate, without letting them take over completely, giving a sense of shared control between artist and sitter.

Penn augmented his no-frills studio with a plain, three-sided booth of gray walls that converged into a narrow corner. Placing his subjects into this unwelcoming maw likely left them gently contained and slightly confused, with the result that the camera became witness to a joint creative effort between subject and artist induced by the awkwardness of the situation. The result was like the improvisational art of the time — bebop, Abstract Expressionism, Kerouac’s run-on narratives — with portraits that were about their making.”                        – Peter Malone, Hyperallergic