Weekly Task 7: Analysis.

Alfred Hitchcock

New York, 1947
Vintage gelatin silver
from:National Portrait Gallery, London

   Irving Penn shot this portrait of Alfred Hitchcock in 1947, before his peak years in the '50s. Hitchcock was an British-American film producer and director. His films were generally psychological thrillers.

   At first glance, this photo seems to be just a portrait of a man, but upon further inspection I started to notice more and more. The man is not shot straight on, but is sitting facing away from the camera, looking towards it. He is centered in the frame. He is not smiling, or frowning, or showing much emotion at all. His hands seem very tense. He doesn't look comfortable. To me, it is as if the photographer caught him as if waiting for the bus, or waiting for bad news.

   The set is very plain. I researched a bit, and found that Penn had Hitchcock sit on a cardboard box covered in scrap carpet. The lighting in the shot is very plain and not focused on anything in particular.

   Given Hitchcock's nature, this photo seems fitting for him. The photo suggests that he is not a normal person, that he is tortured by something. I imagine he had to be tortured if he produced such films. Overall I think the photo is reflective of how eccentric Hitchcock and his films were.

   Methods and Techniques:  In the 1940s, colour film was very new, and black&white was the norm. photos were shot with roll film, and developed from negatives in the darkroom. This photo is a portrait, and offers a snapshot of Alfred Hitchcock's personality with the way it is composed.

   Context and Ideas:  This photo was shot during Hitchcock's wildly famous film career. It has a social context, and now, alludes to history. I couldn't find much info about this photo, but I think Penn tried to show a minimalist, strange, unemotional, normal Hitchcock perhaps in response to him as a person, or his work in the film industry.