site.btaLecture in Sofia to Focus on Irving Penn's Approach to Photographic Portraiture

A lecture by Katerina Gadzheva will focus on the approach to photographic portraiture of American photographer Irving Penn. The lecture will take place at the Soho space in Sofia on January 15, the organizers said here on Tuesday.

Irving Penn initially envisioned his future as an artist, but at the age of 26 he began working as a designer for photographic covers at the fashion magazine Vogue. Soon, he started photographing his own ideas and quickly established himself as a fashion photographer, the organizers noted.

“His compositions are characterized by clean, elegant lines, rather than complex props and backgrounds. This same aesthetic is evident in his portraits, which he created using natural light in a studio setting,” the organizers further said.

Katerina Gadzheva is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Art Studies of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, with research interests in the history and theory of photography. Over the years, she has been a visiting lecturer at New Bulgarian University, the National Academy of Art, and Sofia University. She is the author of the monograph Between the Desired and the Real: Photography and Visual Propaganda in Bulgaria 1948-1956, as well as several articles published in both Bulgarian and international journals.