How to vertically center a clipped image with CSS (jonrohan.codes)

An entire article on how to clip an image with a bunch of ugly hacks makes it to the front page of HN. Nothing wrong with the article, but I can't say the same for html and css.

CSS already supports this natively via 'clip-path' (or the legacy 'clip').

doesn't work in safari though he talks about adding the safari prefix at the end.