When I like an art exhibit, I have this tendency to visit
it, shall we say, compulsively. Such was
the case several years ago when the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
hosted an exhibit of Irving Penn’s photographs.
Each time I walked through the rooms of black and white palladium
prints, I always found myself staring at this picture of French novelist,
Colette.
After photographing Colette, Penn said: "Sensitive People faced with the prospect of a
camera portrait put on a face they think is the one they would like to show the
world. This facade is protective and they are most pleased if the photographer
will idealize their fond image of themselves. I am not at all tender (I think
of myself as neutral) as I seek to make an incision in the presented facade...
Very often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the
subject knows or dares to believe."
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