By Noma Faingold
People might be aware of master photographer Irving Penn (1917-2009) having seen his austere, innovative, high-contrast black-and-white Vogue Magazine fashion spreads. Or maybe viewers have come across his bare-bones, character-revealing portraits of artists and luminaries like Truman Capote, Pablo Picasso and boxer Joe Lewis. Then there's the pristine still life works, at times looking like representational paintings while others seem abstract.
In Penn's nearly 70-year career, he amassed the most diverse body of photographs, from everyday people (butcher, baker and sewer cleaner), landscapes, ethnographic portraits, closeups of flowers, provocative but artistically shot nudes of real-size women (taken in 1949-50 but not publicly exhibited until the 1980s) and literally, unapologetically made trash into art.
"Joe Louis." Photo by Irving Penn courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2021. © Condé Naste.
Penn was known for his precise, simple composition and use of light. But he also embraced new ideas and techniques with printing.
Four local photographers with different styles, at different stages in life, have each been influenced by Penn in some way and plan to attend the 175-photo retrospective, March 16-July 21, at the de Young Museum.
David Stroud
Like Irving Penn, Outer Sunset resident Stroud has evolved from being a fine arts photographer to adding painting and drawing to his creative pursuits. He has also written extensively about photography, including the text for a couple of coffee table books published by Carmel's Photography West Gallery where he once worked.
Born in Berkeley and raised in the Napa Valley, Stroud became interested in photography as a young teen when he got his first photo kit.
"I took it seriously," Stroud said. "I set up a home dark room."
He earned a degree in English literature at UC Santa Cruz before going to graduate school at the University of Kent in England. After living in Pacific Grove for 12 years, he moved to San Francisco in 1989. He gets invited to be in group shows at local galleries, such as a show last fall at the Coastal Arts League Gallery in Half Moon Bay.
Photo by David Stroud.
One of the many reasons Stroud admires Penn is because "he was an amazing artist working in a commercial field," he said. "It's hard to put your finger on it, but he was so unique and covered so many different subjects. He had remarkable clarity in everything he did. It makes anything very penetrating."
Stroud appreciates Penn's perfectly arranged still life images, as well as the bare-bones portraits of notable artists like Georgia O'Keefe.
"She's squeezed into a corner. She looks skeptical and compacts her body. It's not very flattering. It makes her look ordinary," he said.
In the 1970s, Penn turned his attention to subjects like cigarette butts and discarded objects in the street, which Stroud finds stunning.
"I love those cigarette butts," Stroud said. "He's exploring decomposition and decay. Those cigarettes have a lot of character."
Joeann Edmonds Matthew
Joeann Edmonds Matthew of Mill Valley relates to Penn's need to be eclectic in what to shoot.
"He was into a lot of subjects like me, and really weird things," she said. "That's how creative artists work. You can't just do one thing."
She spent decades as a union makeup artist and wardrobe stylist for film and commercials, including "The Matrix" and several movies starring Robin Williams. She took pictures of her work and the productions while on set. But she didn't take her photos seriously until her husband at the time, Ron Edmonds, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist for Associated Press, taught her some of the technical aspects of photography.
"Spring Oaks." Photo by Joeann Edmonds Matthew.
After the Sacramento-born Edmonds Matthew raised her two children and retired seven years ago, her artistic photography went into high gear.
"I work on photography every day. I like photography because it's instant gratification," she said.
Edmonds Matthew, who shows her work in small Bay Area galleries and state fairs, likes to experiment with digital photo software. Currently, she is working on a surrealist series she calls, "Spacescapes."
"I made one out of mashed potatoes. I pushed the tech to the max," she said. "I don't know if they are good. I just love doing them."
Edmonds Matthew, who is most influenced by Penn's landscapes, wouldn't miss the de Young exhibit for anything.
"I'm drawn to the beautiful, exacting fashion stuff he did for Vogue and the nudes he did with real bodies. You don't see that in magazines," she said. "But what's great is he made it acceptable to creatively go all over the place."
Nick Haste
During his tour of duty in the Navy, Haste started taking photos after arriving at different ports around the world. After he left the navy, he wanted to learn more about photography and enrolled at the Academy of Art.
Since graduating, Haste, 35, has been working on building his portfolio and teaching photography at the non-profit youth program First Exposures. He has concentrated on fashion but takes a naturalistic approach. He collaborates with stylists but does not use hairstylists or makeup artists. Like Penn, Haste prefers natural light.
"Portrait With Max." Photo by Nick Haste.
Haste, who lives in the West Portal area, is also immersed in a personal portrait project of African Americans in the City.
"I'm taking pictures of working people," he said. "I want to highlight how we're not being portrayed. There's so much to us. It's about the resilience of people."
He said Penn led the way in defying what fashion magazines expected from photographers.
Nick Haste. Photo by Noma Faingold.
"He gave a glimpse that we don't have to seek that perfect model. We can show everyday people and still be successful."
Ed Jay
San Francisco native Ed Jay, 66, was a controller at a number of financial institutions until he retired in 2018. He took up photography in the 1980s, being the official (volunteer) photographer for cross country and track teams while his two children were in high school.
"It was a way to spend more time with my kids. It was a lot of fun," Jay said.
The Alameda resident started getting paid for his photographs in 2009. He specializes in fashion and sports. One of his favorite locations for fashion shoots is San Francisco's Chinatown, where he grew up.
Photo by Ed Jay.
"I feel very comfortable in Chinatown," Jay said. "It's so colorful. I like putting the model in focus and the red hanging lanterns as the backdrop."
Jay admires Penn's fashion images, but he is most impressed with his gritty portraits.
"He strips away everything but the person," he said. "His subjects are vulnerable. They draw you in an make you think. We are left to interpret what Picasso or Salvador Dali was thinking at that moment."
Irving Penn, a retrospective exhibition organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Irving Penn Foundation in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, March 16-July 21, at the de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr., Golden Gate Park. Learn more at famsf.org.
To see more from profiled photographers, go to davidstroudphotography.com, @david.stroud.51, edjayphotography.com, @edjayphotography, joeannsphotos.com, @joeannedmondsmatthew and nickhaste.com, @nick.haste.
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