Irving Penn's 2005 portrait of Robert Rauschenberg, one of my favorite 20th century artists. Note his paralyzed right hand from a 2002 stroke.
Irving Penn passed away last week at 92.
"Instead of offering spontaneity, Mr. Penn provided the illusion of something fixed, his gaze precisely describing the profile of a Balenciaga coat or of a Moroccan djellaba in a way that could almost mesmerize the viewer. Nothing escaped the edges of his photographs unless he commanded it. Except for a series of close-up portraits that cut his subjects’ heads off at the forehead, and another, stranger suite of overripe nudes, his subjects were usually shown whole, apparently enjoying a splendid isolation from the real world."
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