On a beautiful and absorving study of animal skulls - Cranium Architecture - the American photographer Irving Penn shot a series of exquisite skulls. From a gorilla to a horse, Penn treated each subject with equality; zooming in or moving away to ensure that all the skulls are the same size and placing them in a simple white background to challenge the viewer to look at them in a different way.
Penn rarely explained his work, but in the first exhibition catalogue (1989) Penn explained his inspiration: "An exquisite edifice of living machine. Hard chambers of bone to guard soft organs, protected conduits and channels." Well known for his portraits, Penn did on occasion turn his attention to still life.
This intense Horse Skull photograph is available framed.
