Irving Penn: Visions In Black And White

Yesterday the brilliant photographer Irving Penn passed away in his Manhattan apartment at the age of 92.  Working his camera and artistic vision up until the very end, his amazing career spanned decades.  From his first days as an assistant art director at Vogue magazine to the world renowned master of his medium that he is recognized as today, Penn’s ‘less can be more’ aesthetic has most certainly shaped and inspired countless artist and art directors today.

He photographed trash ( his photographs of cigarette butts, discarded clothing and found trash had many questioning whether some of his subject matter was truly ‘art’ when it was first shown in the 1970′s), food and at the very end- even his own collection of pottery.  But it is his mesmerizing portraits that he will surely be remembered for the most.

Whether his subject was a famous model, a famous artist, a tribesmen, a biker or a street sweeper- Irving Penn treated them with the same creative eye. ‘He once said that his formula for capturing meaningful portraits was to photograph his subjects relentlessly, often over a period of several hours, until they were forced to let down their guard.’ (source)  His work was among the first to cross the line between commercial and fine art, shaping modern photography as we now know it- he  will be extremely missed!

Irving Penn: Small Trades, a show dedicated to the artist series of worker portraits from the 1960′s is currently on display at The Getty Center of Art in Los Angeles ,CA- running through January 10, 2010.

All images taken from Photography-Now.net, The International Photography Index.