As part of the 10th anniversary of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum has acquired images by Felice Beato, Tim Hawkinson and Irving Penn.
Beato was one of the first photographers to chronicle war and social upheaval. His images document many different conflicts, ranging from the Crimea and India to China and Korea, where, in 1871, he made the first known photographs of Korean people. The Beato collection acquired by the Getty includes more than 834 photographs.
Tim Hawkinson is a Los Angeles-based artist whose photographic collage, "Octopus," reshuffles details of human anatomy. For the image, Hawkinson photographed his own fingers, hands and lips to create a mutation of body parts that mirrors the octopus's ability to reconfigure its body. Other Hawkinson works emit sound and are mechanized, with their movements synchronized to music.
In 2009, the Getty Museum will debut "The Small Trades," a 252-piece master set of Irving Penn's works, which it has recently acquired. The body of work is composed of images of tradespeople in London, New York and Paris from 1950 to 1951.
The museum is also planning an exhibit and a publication based on the Penn collection, which will be displayed in its entirety.