Irving Penn by Brooke Boothe
A photographer whom was known for his portrait photography and fashion photography. His art began to flourish for the post World War II photographs, feminine chic, and glamour images. Within his realm of photography as an art he was on of the first photographers to capture an image in front of a simple colored backdrop. He allowed for his photography to be technologically sound as well as the composition. In fact, many photographers mimicked Penn’s artistic style including Piccasso, Duchamp, O’Keeffe and many more. Penn started his fashion photography with Vogue magazine and then started his own photography studio in 1953.
Penn was very passionate about his new form with Vogue magazine which began in 1943, and he even married his favorite fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives. Penn’s photograph, “Woman with Roses” began his peak with vogue magazine and set a standard for other photographers to set the bar for elegant and aesthically pleasting fashion photographs in the 1940’s and 1950’s. When working with Vogue magazine Penn collaborated with the influential art directors Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman. With Brodovitch, Penn was an unpaid design assistant of the summers of 1937 and 1938 at Harper’s Bazaar which was the most provocative magazine of its day. Liberman on the other hand is how Penn began his career with Vogue.
Penn was not only a genius behind the camera but was also intelligent within the dark room. To make his prints seem more dynamic he experimented in the darkroom to temper with his prints and make them more elegant. He would bleach some of his nude prints especially females to make their skin appear harsh and flawless which would make them appear more, “sexually charged.” Penn would also experiment with the process of platinum prints instead of silver because the platinum would makes the photographs seem more velvet to make them seem more high quality. The issue with platinum printing is that the time of preparation and control needs to be exactly precise for a quality print.
“The grace, wit, and inventiveness of his pattern-making, the lively and surprising elegance of his line, and his sensitivity to the character, the idiosyncratic humors, of light make Penn’s pictures, even the slighter ones, a pleasure for our eyes.”
- John Szarkowski (Museum Director)
-Irving Penn
