'For all those years, I turned my head and the lamp was there. That’s my lamp. This picture is a love letter.'
—Irving Penn
Walking past a junk shop in the early 1940s, Irving Penn spotted a brass lamp on the sidewalk and immediately snapped it up. This common household item remained with him for the rest of his life. In 1992, after his wife Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn died and he moved back to New York City, the lamp was the first thing he set up in his new home.
15 years later, in July 2007, Vogue released a special issue in commemoration of Penn’s 90th birthday. For the article, ‘A Mighty Penn’, honouring the photographer’s 60-year association with the magazine, the editors selected this portrait of the lamp he had bought in his early days at Vogue. ‘I decided the lamp was my closest friend,’ he explained. ‘I wanted to celebrate my friendship by making a portrait of it.’
Throughout the course of his life, Penn became known for his stunning still lifes and breathtaking portraits – Bedside Lamp combines both these modes. Set against the stark white background typical of many of his photographs, the lamp’s arm juts into the frame, the shade opens like a flower to reveal the mysterious light and the rainbow of colours reflected in the brass from the single bulb. It is a curiously personal image and one of the last made by Penn. Showcasing the lamp as it takes on a life of its own, Penn draws the viewer’s eye to the subtle reflections in the object that he first spotted all those years ago waiting for him on the sidewalk.