Irving Penn, one of the 20th century’s most prolific and
influential photographers of fashion
died today at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.
I stopped enjoying the US Vogue when Irving Penn stopped working for the magazine.
Every month i was always very exited to see his work to illustrated the big essay.
Mr. Penn’s photographs would appear on more than 150
Vogue covers over the next 50 years.
As a teenager, i was dreaming to buy one day
the famous portrait of Stravinsky staying in the corner.
In 2008, this photo: Igor Stravinsky, New York, April 22 1948
realized $34,600 at Christies 'Auction.
Mr. Penn had the good fortune of working for and collaborating
with two of the 20th century’s most inventive and influential magazine art directors,
Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman.
He studied with Mr. Brodovitch in Philadelphia as a young man
and came to New York in 1937 as his unpaid design assistant at Harper’s Bazaar.
But it was under Mr. Liberman, at Vogue, in 1943
that Mr. Penn forged his career as a photographer.
Passing the age of 65 without a thought of retirement,
Mr. Penn devoted himself increasingly to still-lifes,
on assignments for Vogue,
for advertising clients like Clinique cosmetics,
and in photographs for exhibition.
Penn's work will never fade - Bye Bye Master.
"Sometime in 1948,
I began photographing portraits in a small corner space
made of two studio flats pushed together, the floor covered with a piece of old carpeting.
A very rich series of pictures resulted."
Irving Peen
