Thursday, January 20, 2011

Let's Get Small

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Here are some spreads from this amazing book Emily got me for Christmas, Irving Penn: Small Trades. I wrote a little previously about this series, for which Penn photographed working people in makeshift studios he set up in New York, Paris, and London.



The photos reinforce the beauty of everyday life – we all have our own life and work, whatever it is, all with our own small struggles and victories.


The juxtaposition of subjects is interesting to me, without ever being jarring. These are the things you consider when you put a book like this together.

Pentagram designed it, and the printing and binding are executed beautifully; every last detail is considered and you really feel that when you hold the book in your hands and look through it.

Small Trades is available from fine booksellers everywhere or you can order it directly from the Getty Museum. In the mean time, see images from the Getty's 2009 exhibition Irving Penn: Small Trades here.

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