For this series, I researched the photographer Irving Penn and studied his work. I examined many of his photographs and decided to focus on his portraits, specifically his environmental portraits. During my examination of his work, I saw that Penn often placed his subjects towards the center of the picture plane. Penn also tended to use a more extreme depth of field, and would isolate his subjects with simple backgrounds. I tried to emulate this style when composing my own series of environmental portraits. Most of all, I want to convey the isolation that comes with focusing on a task, because it was this isolation of subjects that attracted me towards Penn’s portraits in the first place. Penn’s subjects are often so focused on what they are doing that they don’t even look at the camera, and I wanted to do something similar by capturing people in their own worlds. Being alone and focusing hard on a job or hobby is often such a peaceful isolation, and I hoped to capture this through my subjects. People act different when they are with other people, and I find that there is a rawness to people when they are all alone. I think that when we are all alone, we take off our masks and become submerged into our own passions, whatever they may be. The rest of the world disappears and, for even just a moment, we are at peace.  

For examples of Penn’s work, there is a link to his website on my links page (be sure to check out his portraits page).