Composition of Ten Pieces, New York 1979

Irving Penn made this photograph in New York using gelatin silver, and you can see how carefully he arranges these ten objects; it's like they’re characters in a play. Look at the surface texture; it feels almost like a painting, doesn't it? I mean, it's just tones of grey, but within that, you see subtle shifts. The light seems to graze over each form, giving it weight and presence. It’s interesting how he captures the wear and tear on these objects, the imperfections that give them their unique identities. In particular, there’s a kind of dark, squat cylinder at the right which looks like it’s balancing something, but is in fact balanced itself. Penn’s photography often plays with arrangements of found objects; a bit like what artists like Kurt Schwitters were doing with collage. Both artists create a new kind of poetry using everyday materials. It’s a reminder that art doesn’t always need to be grand or monumental; sometimes it's about finding beauty in the ordinary, and creating meaning through juxtaposition.