First Encounter
My first encounter with Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn occurred back in November 2017. I was intensively studying and looking for some delightful distraction. Outside and away from books. I had heard about this exhibition at Le Grand Palais, an exhibition from the prolific Irving Penn - American photographer renowned for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. And because the official exhibition cover, featuring Mary Jane Russell, had me awestruck - see down below, I wholeheartedly walked 20 minutes to the museum, covered up with my smooth woollen scarf. (NB : Walking has always helped me with getting completely relaxed. Meaning there is still the metro option for the most skittish ones of you.)
There, the first rooms and exposed pieces had me over the moon. Especially since Le Grand Palais had performed a remarkable articulated analysis of Irving Penn’s background, formative years and artistic evolution. I was there, standing at the epicenter of Penn’s life and philosophy. And soon, Lisa Fonssagrives’s figure would too.
Lisa-Irving Love Affair
Up until now, I can not help but wonder when the promising romance between Lisa and Irving started burgeoning. From Penn’s first glance to their discreet and long-lived wedding, Lisa had always been her muse. One look and Penn profoundly felt the chemistry; the artistic one for sure, the amorous one is up for debate. Even though they both enjoyed a rare privacy together, I could not help but try to decipher in which photographs Lisa’s showed to Penn’s eye - and ours - more than good understanding between two artists. There was a fine line and ample room for thoughts.
Lisa was already familiar with the matters of photography - see The Twelve Most Photographed Models down below. Official Dior model, she was setting herself apart from her peers thanks to her dancing heritage and grasp of Christian’s work. She had inspired the greatest photographers from her time : Horst P. Horst, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, etc. It goes without saying Irving Penn would soon be hooked. But how and when did he gain her devoted attention too ?
Irving Penn used to say :
We don’t call them shoots here. We don’t shoot people. It’s really a love affair.
Needless to say, he had taken his words seriously.
Penn’s art views and expression are likely to be blamed. Irving was well aware of both the limitations of his models’ public facade and his own medium.
In portrait photography, there is something more profound that we seek inside a person while being painfully aware that a limitation of our medium is that the inside is recordable only insofar as is apparent on the outside.
Why Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn will always be one of my dearest model
Put simply, my affection towards Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn has been and will always be steming from one essential element: Lisa and Irving’s delicate complicity and alchemy. Together, they bridged the gap between public facade, medium capture, and interpersonal restriction in expression. Together, they expressed the purest form of photograph one could ever experience. Their partnership transcended the boundaries of traditional artistry, by blending creativity, trust and mutual understanding, elevating the art form itself.