Carson McCullers, New York

Irving Penn

May 10 1950, printed 1983 · Platinum-palladium print · Photographs

When McCullers sat for Penn in 1950, her play The Member of the Wedding was collecting awards on Broadway. Countering the tilt of her head with the crook of her hand, Penn created a visually unstable pose that artfully telegraphs McCullers’s partial paralysis. This pose and the intensity of her gaze convey a deep humanity rocked by vexing vulnera-bility, qualities manifest in the writer’s sympathy for isolated and eccentric characters.

Artist

Irving Penn

Date

May 10 1950, printed 1983

Medium

Platinum-palladium print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2021