Confinement.

Sometime in 1948, one of my all time favourite photographers Irving Penn began making portraits in a small corner space made of two studio flats pushed together, the floor covered with a piece of old carpeting. 

To quote the photographer, “a very rich series of pictures resulted. This confinement, surprisingly seemed to comfort people, soothing them. The walls were a surface to lean on or push against. For me the picture possibilities were interesting: limiting the subjects’ movement seemed to relieve me of part of the problem of holding on to them.”

Penn’s subjects constituted a wide spectrum of writers, dancers, artists, socialites, musicians, political figures and other celebrities of the era. Among those who found their way into Penn’s corner were Noel Coward, the Duchess of Windsor, Marcel Duchamp, Joe Louis, the Gish Sisters, Duke Ellington, and Truman Capote.

Living alone I have no human to stick in my corner, so I used my newly sprouted Hyacinths.

Simple set-up using sugar-paper and grass from Poundland - see extra.