Just came across this in todays Telegraph:

Camen Dell’Orefice is showing her body of work as a model over the last decades at the London College of Fashion.

She’s such a great character and one of the most standout models i ever met and had the pleasure working with in Paris.

I can’t wait  to see this and if you’re in London i highly recommend this treasure of fashion photography history.

Carmen: A Life In Fashion’ runs from Wednesday, November 16, 2011 to Saturday, January 14, 2012 at the Fashion Space Gallery, London College of Fashion, John Princes Street, London W1; fashion.arts.ac.uk

Spring auctions are on these days and the most intriguing piece i saw was the georgeous portrait of Cate Blanchett by Irving Penn, 2007.

Just brilliant and in the usual manner perfectly printed, mounted and signed, just oustanding.

Now i hope it gets the price it deserves, estimate is very fair considering the other IP’s for sale:

I just got the book a couple of days ago and it’s a brilliant little gem. But i really urge everyone interested in the best photographical portrait work ever done, to see the show in person.

It’s up at the National Portrait Gallery in London until June 6, 2010 and then at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome from July 1st through September 19th, 2010.

I always loved that portfolio. It fits right between the Peru studio portraits early in his career and the tent/tribes shoots across the world in “Worlds in a small room”.

I just got back from the show at the Getty center in LA (where admission is free but parking $15, really) and was again impressed by the collection.

The prints had various qualities to them, from fiber based prints to variations in the platinum coatings, but it was a nice treat to see them all lined up for comparison. From the subjects, to the way they carried themselves and their tools, their facial expressions; all very intriguing.

The only disappointing part was that due to the sheer amount of prints some hang a little to high for closer review, but i guess that a nice problem to have with around 250 prints…

And i really enjoyed that the actual print size was not at such a monster scale that are shown i recent years, like this the photograph can be viewed as one whole image and the eye doesn’t have to wander.

We lost a giant.

He, of all the photographers in history, influenced me the most.

His attention to detail, the contrast and the simplification of subjects will always be inspiring.

His work was one of the first that really stood out for me as a teenager when I first got into photography and discovered “Passage” and later “Flowers”.

(And I read all the book on photography in our library; twice)

And today I’m still amazed on the broad subject matter he shot so exquisitely and was always excited finding another Penn photograph in Vogue over the years.

There is a very short list of photographers that I’m a true fan and he is on top of even this group.

This is truly one of the saddest days in the Photography world and words will never be enough.

His series “Petit métiers” shot for Vogue in the 50′s is on display at the Getty Center in LA till January 10, 2010