Mother and Posing Daughter, Cuzco

Irving Penn

December 1948, printed April 1989 · Platinum-palladium print · Photographs

Young mothers arrived at Penn’s rented studio with their newborns strapped in little hammocks on their backs; shepherds and porters came dressed in colorful, striped ponchos and woolen capes; and street vendors from near and far showed up with their wares, including straw hats, newspapers, and fresh eggs from the valleys far below the city. Penn posed these sitters with his distilled awareness of the poetics of available light and his sense of how to delicately tilt a head in order to strengthen a chin, shadow an ear, or animate the eyes.

Artist

Irving Penn

Date

December 1948, printed April 1989

Medium

Platinum-palladium print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2019