Penn, Irving

(1917- )

   Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Penn studied under Alexey Brodovitch (art director of Harper's Bazaar) at the Philadelphia Museum School, and he graduated in 1938. Although he would go on to make his name as a photographer, it was his drawings and paintings that first caught the attention of Harper's Bazaar, which led to freelance work as an assistant art director at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1937. He was hired in 1943 by Vogue magazine where his photography career blossomed and continues even today. Penn has had more than 170 Vogue covers and has taken hundreds of portraits of celebrities such as Marlene Dietrich, Igor Stravinsky, Georgia O'Keefe, Martha Graham, Salvador Dali, and Hubert Humphrey. He is most famous for his austere backgrounds, usually a simple grey or white. The simplicity of the backdrop allows the subject to become the focal point of the picture. Positioning his subjects into corners was another way for him to capture their essence and to direct the viewer's eye to the subject's expression. This technique became known as Penn's "corner portraits" (1948-1949). Penn's style is characterized by his careful use of light and his clarity of composition and form. This style was to prevail consistently in his fashion photography and portrait and ethnographic work.

   In 1950, Penn married his favorite model, Lisa Fonssagrives (1911-1992), with whom he would open a studio and collaborate. In 1960, Penn published his first book, Moments Preserved, which documented the best ten years of his fashion photography and, in 1961, Penn created a series of photographic essays for Life magazine. In 1964, he refined new photographic processes utilizing precious metals, iridium, platinum, and palladium. The results produced exhibition quality photographs that were shown in a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002 and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 2005. Penn's other published works include Irving Penn Regards the Work of Issey Miyake (1999), Still Life (2001), Drawings (1999), A Notebook at Random (2004), and Photographs at Dahomey (2004). He resides in New York City and is a regular contributor to Vogue magazine.