Irving Penn

Amber Ben Shushan

Important Dates
Born June 16, 1617 in New Jersey- Died in 2009

http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/091007-Irving-Penn-bcol-2-5p.grid-4x2.jpg

Influences
Mr. Penn worked for and collaborated with two of the 20th centurys most inventive
and influential magazine art directors, Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman.
Mr. Penn was an unpaid design assistant for Brodovitch in the summers of 1937
and 38 at Harpers Bazaar, the most provocative fashion magazine of the day. But
it was under Liberman, at Vogue, that Mr. Penn forged his career as a
photographer.

Influences contd.
As a student at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia
(now the University of the Arts) from 1934 to 1938, Mr. Penn studied drawing,
painting and graphic and industrial design. His most influential teacher was
Brodovitch, who was familiar with the vanguard of European art and design.
Mr. Penn was a freelance designer and illustrator for Harpers Bazaar and other
clients. He also bought a camera and began to photograph Manhattan storefronts
and signs. In 1940 he inherited Brodovitchs position as director of advertising
design for Saks Fifth Avenue, but within a year he decided to go to Mexico to be a
painter.

Where it all started

Mr. Penns first assignment was to supervise the design of Vogues covers.
Sketching several possible photographic scenes, he was unable to interest the
staff photographers in taking them, so he took to the photo studio himself, at
Libermans suggestion. The first result was a color still-life photograph of a glove,
a pocketbook and other accessories, published as the cover of Vogue on Oct. 1,
1943. Mr. Penns photographs appeared on more than 150 Vogue covers over the
next 50 years.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gwjjzpPwGfKGpQUsjum452NZjWHMOUsxvUgKNAhabDwtivrstuf5XcNVx-odFHyypjpddyo=s85

Award
He received the Hasselblad award, given to photographers to make great
achievements in their photographic career.
The Hasselblad name has been linked with cameras almost since the early days
of photography itself. First merely selling, then producing the tools through which
vision is captured

http://www.hasselbladfoundation.org/assets/Diverse-stripbilder/Medalj-1.jpeg.jpg

Subject Matter
Nudes: Initially, Penn photographed slim models in poses where they twisted or
contorted their bodies when lying down or standing against walls. He soon
switched, however, to photographing the larger, heavier models who figured in the
majority of the final printed images.
Portraits: Penn created photographic profiles of stars in music, dance,
performance, art, and literature
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/HDhvxGkep2HuU9WUvZoyz-92genJ12uEgdJ_xVVBf5J30LQT4DTxtsgs8Kf6h5box3qPYQ=s85
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b0/de/e8/b0dee8fc25bdfd7274280368ffb88d9b.jpg

What is Penn trying to communicate?

Since he often worked for magazines, the goal of his work was to narrow the line
between fashion and art, and he also wanted to help sell the items he
photographed.

https://pleasurephotoroom.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/lisa-fonssagrives-wearing-a-bicorne-skimmer-by-lilly-dachc3a8-photo-by-irving-penn-vogue-feb-15-1950.jpg

Significant Contributions
He contributed to the diversity of human subjects by photographing make different
shapes and sizes of people.
Because of this, the Irving Penn foundation was started to appreciate his legacy
and to preserve his work

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/50819b0de4b0f90fab832ddf/t/50eedcd3e4b07ac9a3e3be45/1357831380421/Irving_Penn-3.jpg

Quotes by Penn

Many photographers feel their client is the subject. My client is a woman in Kansas who reads Vogue. I
'm trying to intrigue, stimulate, feed her. My responsibility is to the reader. The severe portrait th
at is not the greatest joy in the world to the subject may be enormously interesting to the reader.

Liberman said to me, 'I must cut back on the work you do for Vogue. The editors don't like it. Th
ey say the photographs burn on the page . After some years, I began to understand that what they
wanted of me was simply a nice, sweet, clean-looking image of a lovely young woman.

Quotes about Irving Penn

Whether Penn was shooting a nude, a glove or Truman Capote, he honored the
truth of his subjects at a particular moment. - Lynn Hirschberg (New York Times)

http://www.artsology.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/irving-penn-photography.jpg

Geographic Places Where Photos Were Taken

Since he took photos for Vogue Magazine, he often shot in New York.
He also traveled to Mexico once to shoot there.

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/10/8/1254984420188/Photographer-Irving-Penn-001.jpg?
w=300&q=85&auto=format&sharp=10&s=3b4ea93e92e725f3f386503b392e94dc

Bibliography
http://www.hamiltonsgallery.com/artists/27-irving-penn/biography/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/arts/design/08penn.html?_r=0
http://www.hasselblad.com/inspiration/our-story/hasselblad-history
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/IrvingPennArchives/portraits
http://irvingpenn.org/
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/i/irving_penn.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/magazine/27Penn-t.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FPenn%2C%20Irving&action=click&cont
entCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=9&pgtype=collection&_r=0