« I can get obsessed with anything if I look at it long enough. Thats the curse of being a photographer. »
Irving Penn is an American photographer, born in New Jersey on June 9, 1917 and deceased on October 7, 2009 in New York. He built his career on fashion and beauty photographer and was also very well known for his Nature Morte (Stil Life) photographes. His muse was a very well known model of this century, Lisa Fonssagrives. They later married in 1950, and had a baby Tom Penn a few years later. He studied drawing, painting, graphics and industrial art at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia under Alexis Brodovitch who was the art director at Harper’s Bazaar from 1934-1958. Mr.Penn worked for Vogue from 1947-2007 (till he was 90 years old), he was under contract with Conde Nast for 60 years, which is a real achievement in a photographers career. Irving was one of the first photographers to use simplicity as a form of photography technique, he posed objects in front of a grey or white backdrop. His still life compositions were very well organized and thought through, which created an abstract interplay of line and volume. His photographs are simply perfect but that is because he analyzes every detail of the image to produce the exact vision that he wants. Mr.Penn was a modernist photographer of his time, and started a trend that nobody dared to do which was bold and impressive.
« Using simple equipment and daylight alone is for me a pleasure and a replenishment »
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