Irving Penn in Salzburg Exhibition review by Jens Hinrichsen

In 1995, the famous photographer Irving Penn recalled ‘what I remember is the purity of the relationship of these young people and an innocence so different from today’s. As I look at these pictures, how the dancers touch each other, how they embrace, there’s a serenity that as a photographer I’m not used to.’

What was the US photographer, who died in 2009 at the age of 92, so enthusiastic about? In 1967, in the midst of the Summer of Love in San Francisco, a dance performance was recreated in his studio in Sausalito. ‘The Bath - A Dancer's workshop event’ had been choreographed and premiered in 1966 by Anna Halprin (1920-2021), who is now regarded as a pioneer of postmodern dance.

Her approach fostered a sense of community through body awareness and improvised group interactions based on rituals that radically changed modern dance. ‘Dance is breath made visible,’ Halprin once explained.