107 — 107

On Passage

four years ago, while working in madrid as luis venegas’ assistant,

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apartment. We were busy cataloging a curated selection of venegas’

impressive collection of books and magazines, and i was curious. the

amount of paper per square meter was a pyromaniacs wet dream.

venegas quickly stood up from his desk, peeked his head from his

SJƟGI� ERH� WEMH�� Ŷ�1MKYIP�� XLI� SRP]� X[S� XLMRKW� -� [SYPH� KVEF�[SYPH�

be my computer and Passage. it is the most important book in my

library. ” 3DVVDJH��$�:RUN�5HFRUG�is irving Penn’s autobiographical

monograph of his career from 1938 to 1991. indispensable for fashion

photographers, editors and enthusiasts, Passage is sort of what the

Bible is to catholics. life-changing, dogmatic, magical and eternal.

words miguel figueroa photography cameron mccool

shoot indigenous tribes from the country. the photo-KVETLIV�XLSYKLX�XLEX�XLI�ƟPQ�LEH�FIIR�PSWX�JSVIZIV��but majocchi found them. and that image eventually made it into 3DVVDJH�

after being a downhill skier during his teenage years, majocchi decided to study photography at the age of 21 and enrolled in the Brooks institute in santa Bar-bara, california. during this time, he took a detour; he went to the east coast, dabbled in illustration, advertising and still-life photography before gra-duating in 1987, and by this time he was ‘done’ with 'EPMJSVRME��8LI�VIEWSR#�Ŷ-X�[EW�XSS�GYXIW]�ŷ�LI�XIPPW�me. as he arrived in new York, he started interviewing for work, but he already had irving Penn, as well as richard avedon and Hiro, in mind as his dream job opportunity. luckily, he got a lead from an old colle-ge friend who was working with avedon at the time, and who had worked with mr. Penn previously. His friend told him that Penn was looking for a new as-sistant. Having nothing to lose, majocchi called the studio and set up an appointment.

the next day at 10am, majocchi rang the doorbell at XLI�WXYHMS��Ŷ�8LI�HSSV�STIRIH�ERH�MX�[EW�1V��4IRR�ŷ�after a 45-minute interview, the photographer con-fessed that majocchi’s hands scared him. majocchi, an extremely handsome and broad italian man who stands over 6’1”, had to prove that his large hands would be capable of handling minuscule yet extre-mely important details for photographing l’oreal ERH� 'PMRMUYIŴW� IPEFSVEXI� WXMPP�PMJI� WIXW�� Ŷ)ZIV]XLMRK�was microsurgery. the water would not just hit the soap. Water came from a funnel which had a pre-cise turn in a spiral shape to give the water a cer-tain movement. and, behind the soap, there was a little metal plate that had some wax in a shape that made it look like the water was hitting the soap, but the water wasn’t really hitting the soap. it was actua-lly hitting wax behind the soap to give it a perfect splash. everything was done with hot glue guns and tweezers.” majocchi offered himself to work for free for a couple of days to prove himself. afterwards, he returned to santa Barbara. a month later, mr. Penn’s studio came calling.

What drew majocchi to mr. Penn’s work was his ZIVWEXMPMX]�� Ŷ&IEYX]�� XVYI� FIEYX]� EP[E]W� WXERHW� MR�the highest form of simplicity. to be able to carry such strength and be so powerful in so many ways, whether it is a portrait, a glass of water with a piece of bread, a model wearing a Balenciaga dress, a pic-ture of a kid in the street or even the Bikers series. He would be able to capture the essence of each subject in front of the camera. regardless if it was dead or alive, like the detail of a piece of dirt from the street.”

irving Penn started in mexico as a painter and, be-fore he became one of the masters of 20th century photography, he was an art director for saks fifth avenue. His friend, alexander lieberman gave him a job at 9RJXH working alongside his peers cecil Bea-ton and Horst P. Horst, who weren’t exactly thrilled to be working with the young art director. after getting a hard time from them, mr. Penn went back to liber-man saying that the photographers were making LMW�PMJI�QMWIVEFPI�ERH�0MFIVQER�SJJIVIH�LMQ�LMW�ƟVWX�gig as a photographer, the cover of the october 1st, 1943 issue. the photograph, a still life featuring a leather belt, a white glove adorned with an over-sized ring, a purse a top a hat box, a hanging scarf ERH�E�TVMRX�SJ�ERSXLIV�WXMPP�PMJI�JIEXYVMRK�ƟZI�PIQSRW��foreshadowed what was to come of his career as one of the leading photographic voices in the his-tory of the iconic magazine.

flipping through the book’s pages, our conversation about the book’s process progressed and majocchi WLEVIH�[MXL�QI� XLI� WXSVMIW� FILMRH� WTIGMƟG� TLSXS-KVETLW��Ŷ1V��4IRR�LEH�E�TVIGMWI�MHIE�SJ�LS[�Passa�ge�[EW�KSMRK�XS�PSSO�JVSQ�XLI�ƟVWX�XS�XLI�PEWX�TEKI�ŷ�the biggest challenge during the editing process was trying to get him away from his preset views SJ�XLI�FSSO��Ŷ,I�[EW�WS�MRXS�LMW�[SVO��LI�ORI[�[LEX�he wanted and it was chronological, starting in 1938.” their relationship was strictly professional, but when we spoke about mr. Penn’s wife, the con-versation shifted from strictly business to personal. Ŷ8LI]�LEH�E�FIEYXMJYP�VIPEXMSRWLMT��7SQIXMQIW�WLI�would drive into the city to pick him up or he would call to tell her what train he was getting on so she

108 — 109

i proudly carried my second-hand copy of Passage with me on my way to meet nicola majocchi, irving Penn’s assistant from 1988 to 1992. as i pulled the book out of my bag, majocchi’s eyes lit up with the same happiness that occurs when you see a long lost friend you haven’t seen in years. the book took three years to produce and the workload was monumental — majocchi had to go through each and every nega-tive and slide of mr. Penn’s entire career.

originally, majocchi was going to spend only one year with mr. Penn, but the now 52-year-old photo-grapher told me that things changed dramatically SRGI�LI�EVVMZIH�EX�XLI�WXYHMS��Ŷ1V��4IRR�[EW�W[MXGLMRK�his whole studio team. He had 2-3 full time assistants and 2 freelance assistants as well.” frictions with the new studio manager at the time caused the steady assistants to quit and majocchi found himself in the eye of the storm, taking over the role of all assistants. ,MW� ]IEVW� [MXL� 1V�� 4IRR� [IVI� RSR�WXST�� Ŷ;I� [IVI�shooting 4-5 days a week for 9RJXH, calvin Klein, l’oreal, versace and issey miyake.” clinique alone took 2-3 weeks of the their studio time per year, and with a smaller staff, mr. Penn was able to become more active in day-to-day activities in the studio.

the energy in the studio was as high as the decade of 80s excess; christy turlington, cindy crawford and naomi campbell were always around to strike a pose. during that period, mr. Penn was in charge of photographing the iconic issey miyake and ver-sace advertising campaigns. majocchi reveled in the cast of characters that were always coming in and SYX�SJ�XLI�WXYHMS��Ŷ;MXL�1M]EOI��XLI�.ETERIWI�GVI[�would always come in looking impeccable; they were incredibly kind, respectful and humble. But with Gianni [versace], it was donatella… all his family! the seam-stresses, their friends, cooks, everybody. Gianni would come in and say ‘ciao maestro!’ the two of them would hug and it would be a week of a lot of food. completely the opposite from miyake’s camp.”

majocchi had the full experience as mr. Penn’s assis-tant from the on-set; from working in the archive to dealing with shipping and delivery arrangements of

the platinum prints. sipping a soda, he continued, Ŷ-�[ERXIH� XS�FI� VIEPP]�FYW]��%X� XLI�IRH�SJ� XLEX�ƟVWX�year i was ready to go back to milan. But, mr. Penn — who was infatuated with italy after being there du-ring World War ii and who’s artistic idol was Giotto — sat down with me and said, ‘i know you want to go back to your country, but i want to make you a proposal.’” the offer was to assist mr. Penn during the arduous process of editing Passage. it was an irresistable offer and the then 25-year-old majocchi ended up working at mr. Penn’s studio for four more years. as we started going through the book, majocchi TVSYHP]� WEMH�� Ŷ1]�REQI� MW�SR� XLI� XMXPI�TEKI�SJ� XLEX�book. Passage means a lot to me.” in the book’s ack-nowledgments, majocchi was one of the people that mr. Penn thanked personally, saying that his former EWWMWXERX�[EW��Ŷ�Q]�VMKLX�LERH�MR�TYXXMRK�XLMW�FSSO�XS-gether. i could not have managed without his strength, good judgement and his ability to organize. ”

Work with mr. Penn was non-stop. majocchi would arrive in the studio by 7:30 am. He would go through his to-do list and for the next two hours would dedica-XI�LMW�XMQI�XS�SJƟGI�GSQQYRMGEXMSRW��&]�������1V��4IRR�was in the studio after commuting from his Huntington farm where he lived with his wife, the model and muse lisa fonssagrives. upon arrival, mr. Penn would change into his work uniform : levi’s jeans, superga blue canvas shoes and an issey miyake blue shirt. By 9:30-10, it was showtime. shoots would run through ƟZI�SŴGPSGO�MR�XLI�EJXIVRSSR��3R�RSR�WLSSXMRK�HE]W��majocchi would work at mr. Penn’s storage units or visit galleries in the morning, followed by print and/or archival work in the afternoon.

mr. Penn’s work was housed in two storage units in manhattan. during the research, majocchi would go through envelopes labeled with handwritten des-criptions by mr. Penn. everything that he conside-red book worthy read : material to be considered for chronology book. in one of the prints that mr. Penn KEZI� XS�1ENSGGLM� XLVSYKL� XLI� ]IEVW�� LI�[VSXI�� Ŷ�8S�nicola, the great discoverer, ” because it was majoc-chi who found an envelope with negatives from a trip to new Guinea that mr. Penn took in 1970 to

nicola maJoccHi

Keep your overheads low. Remember, no matter

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you work in, the most important thing is to that

you have to be a problem solver. That’s how you

master your profession.

— Irving Penn

nicola maJoccHi

could time herself to pick him up. When lisa died, it was tough. she was everything to him. she was a beacon of light. after she passed, he was back on the set because that was his only way to continue living. that was the only time we hugged. He cried on my shoulder. it was a very personal moment.”

a few months later, majocchi left the studio. during his last day, he asked mr. Penn for a word of advice and the master told the young apprentice three things: Ŷ/IIT� ]SYV� SZIVLIEHW� PS[�� 6IQIQFIV�� RS� QEXXIV�[LS�]SY�EVI��[LEX�]SYV�TEWWMSR� MW��[LEX�ƟIPH�]SY�work in, the most important thing is to that you have to be a problem solver. that’s how you master your TVSJIWWMSR�ŷ� 8LI� PEWX� SRI#� Ŷ=SY� XEOI� XLI� TMGXYVI�with your heart, not your camera.” after such a suc-cessful number of years at the studio, i asked him why he decided to leave and he responded in his HIIT�-XEPMER�ZSMGI��Ŷ2SXLMRK�KVS[W�MR�XLI�WLEHS[�SJ�a big tree. mr. Penn was a life mentor to me.” even though they parted ways, mr. Penn’s agents conti-nued to pass on jobs to majocchi, which supported his career and allowed him to grow his portfolio. majocchi went back to the studio to visit mr. Penn every year, once a year, until 2008, a year before mr. Penn passed away.