I chose a portrait of Irving Penn, by Irving Penn. The self-portrait is titled “Irving Penn: In a Cracked Mirror”. I think this image is very striking. I personally am always drawn to broken mirrors or distorted mirrors so I was drawn to this piece. While the face is disrupted by the crack in the glass, it is still a very successful reads as a self-portrait. The contrast in this image is very strong, going from very bright whites in some of the facial features like the eyes and a distorted highlight across the nose while also including extremely dark values in his shirt and hair where you almost lose all detail as it is so dark. While the left eye is lost in a shadow, the right eye which has more direct light and is repeated due to the crack in the mirror, is staring strongly at the viewer. I think the two black spots in the background are interesting creates even more disruption to the idea of a typical self-portrait.
The Irving Penn Foundation, irvingpenn.org/.