Let me begin to say I'm a great admirer of Irving Penn, his portraits and fashion work, but in particular the 'Worlds in a Small Room' series. That said, I don't have the least illusion I'm capable of approaching his mastery in any way, let alone emulate his pictures.
But nevertheless I always have had the idea of some day trying to do something similar, on my own level, in my own way, within my own limitations
So couple of weeks ago I visited an Arts & Culture festival, where I found myself literally one minute too late for the performance of a dance group, the Mambesak Papua Dance Group. I only caught a glimp of their exotic tribal costumes before they returned to their dressing room, but immediately had Irving Penn's 'Worlds in a Small Room' photographs shot in New Guinea in my mind, which of course left me kicking myself for missing the opportunity to take some pictures.
Fortunately I heard they would perform a few weeks later, so contacted them, and today kind of performed an act of blasphemy by trying to shoot something somewhat in the style of the above pictures.
I had thought of using a tent like construction similar to his portable studio, but there was too much wind, and since I had to shoot on a parking lot behind some buildings, I could not put some pins in the ground to secure the tent with some ropes.
So I ended up with just a cloth back drop, no canopy or something similar, but on the other hand was lucky to find a spot facing north in shadow of a building so I at least had 'northern light'.
Didn't use a Rolleiflex either, just my D800 workhorse and a 1.4/58mm, sometimes wide open, sometimes stopped down a few stops (and it's amazingly sharp then)
Turned out there also were some bikers, so I really had my 'pretend Irving Penn day' today.
Pictures are here
http://www.pbase.com/paul_k/20160604_melanesian_art__culture_festival_nieuwegein_deel_1 , please be gentle with me
