Irving Penn was a photographer that work in the 1940's all the way up too the 1990's and is one of the most respected photographers in the 20th century (American, born 1917). He worked for Vogue magazine in the 1940's as was in a Paris photography college that had closed down. He used one of the studio that had massive amounts of light coming in and took the picture on a Roller-flex camera. This studio was rented by Vogue magazine for a fashion shoot. Penn started this project in France Paris in the college.
He asked people how where local workers of a few know cities which are London, Paris and New York. This project took a few years too shoot as well as a few years to print as in the late 1950's early 60's he was doing platinum/palladium prints. Which is metal printing on a sliver service. The whole point of this project is to show workers and jobs that are no longer around or have changed so much since the 60 + years that this project was done.
The way this project helped me out is that I had started looking in to 1950's glamor photography that was done back then. The name Irving Penn come up and I then saw this project that he had done and bought the book as I loved the work. I was then sitting in a lesson and saw something called Harman Direct Positive Paper which works the opposite way the film negative. Which made me think that I could use this paper in stead of film as I will get a one off shoot of the person.
The way I have done the lighting is one soft box next to the camera. The person that gave me this idea was Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. This was because he use a larger format camera with a soft box for all his portraits and work he dose is in his home studio. The one colour for the background has an even light to it. If you like to see his work please look at one of my blogs. Here is the link to that blog: -
I realized that this would be impossible. I was using a larger format camera and a flash kit in stead of natural light. So instead I used a 120 film (Medium format) and colour as there is alot of colour in a market. I have still keep in a studio that moved into a market stall it self so I do not take the stall workers away form the market or there stalls too long.
Sites to find more information.
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/penn/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Penn
