Five Okapa Warriors, New Guinea 1970

Irving Penn made this gelatin silver print, Five Okapa Warriors, New Guinea, sometime in the 20th century. It’s monochrome, a study in greys, which lends a timeless quality to the image of these men who must have spent hours preparing for this shot. It makes me think about ritual and its translation into art. The surface is smooth, almost like skin, which is funny considering how much skin we see here. The warrior at the front has this huge bone through his nose, and it’s the first thing I saw. It’s so brutal and beautiful at the same time. It’s a sharp contrast to the smoothness I mentioned. Penn really nails the portrait. Think of August Sander’s portraits of German archetypes. Penn seems to be doing something similar here, capturing a sense of place and people with such dignity, and in doing so he freezes a moment in time.