Editing Irving Penn

{{Short description|American photographer (1917-2009)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Irving Penn

| birth_date = {{birth date|1917|06|16}}
| birth_place = [[Plainfield, New Jersey]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2009|10|07|1917|06|16}}
| death_place = [[New York City]], New York, U.S.
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Lisa Fonssagrives]]|1950|1992}} (her death)
| family = [[Arthur Penn]] (younger brother) <br /> [[Matthew Penn]] (nephew)
| children = 1
| occupation = Photographer
}}

'''Irving Penn''' (June 16, 1917{{spaced ndash}}October 7, 2009)<ref name="Grundberg">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/arts/design/08penn.html?_r=1&hp|title=Irving Penn, Fashion Photographer, Is Dead at 92|last=Grundberg|first=Andy|date=2009-10-07|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=2009-10-07}}</ref> was an American photographer known for his [[fashion photography]], [[portraits]], and [[still life]]s.  Penn's career included work at ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'' magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including [[Issey Miyake]] and [[Clinique]].  His work has been exhibited internationally and continues to inform the art of photography.

==Early life and education==
Penn was born to a [[Russian Jewish]] family<ref>[http://www.jewishjournal.com/hollywoodjew/item/bonnie_and_clyde_director_arthur_penn_dies_at_88_20100929/ Jewish Journal: "‘Bonnie and Clyde’ director Arthur Penn dies at 88" by Danielle Berrin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170117122244/http://www.jewishjournal.com/hollywoodjew/item/bonnie_and_clyde_director_arthur_penn_dies_at_88_20100929 |date=2017-01-17 }} September 29, 2010 (Age 0)</ref> on June 16, 1917, in [[Plainfield, New Jersey]], to Harry Penn and Sonia Greenberg. Penn's younger brother, [[Arthur Penn]], was born in 1922 and would go on to become a film director and producer.<ref>{{cite news | author=Dave Kehr | title=Arthur Penn, Director of 'Bonnie and Clyde,' Dies | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/movies/30penn.html | work=The New York Times | date=September 29, 2010 | access-date=}}</ref> Penn attended [[Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn)|Abraham Lincoln High School]] where he studied graphic design with [[Leon Friend]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://designobserver.com/feature/leon-friend-one-teacher-many-apostles/5717|title=Leon Friend: One Teacher, Many Apostles|website=Design Observer|date=21 July 2007 |language=en|access-date=2019-07-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kz-dDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA336|title=Irving Penn: Centennial|last1=Hambourg|first1=Maria Morris|last2=Rosenheim|first2=Jeff L.|last3=Dennett|first3=Alexandra|last4=Garner|first4=Philippe|last5=Kirsch|first5=Adam|last6=Prins|first6=Harald E. L.|last7=Zatse|first7=Vasilios|date=2017-04-21|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art|isbn=9781588396181|language=en}}</ref>

Penn attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now the [[University of the Arts (Philadelphia)|University of the Arts]]) from 1934 to 1938, where he studied drawing, painting, graphics, and industrial arts under [[Alexey Brodovitch]]. While still a student, Penn worked under Brodovitch at ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'' which published several of Penn's drawings.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}}

== Career ==
Penn worked as a freelance designer for three years, taking his first amateur photographs before assuming Brodovitch's position as the art director at [[Saks Fifth Avenue]] in 1940. Penn remained at Saks Fifth Avenue for a year before leaving to spend a year painting and taking photographs in Mexico and across the US. When Penn returned to New York, [[Alexander Liberman]] offered him a position as an associate in ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'' magazine's Art Department. Penn worked on layout for the magazine before Liberman asked him to try photography.<ref>{{cite book|last=Penn|first=Irving|title=Passage|year=1991|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|isbn=0-679-40491-0|page=5}}</ref>

Penn's first photographic cover for ''VOGUE'' magazine appeared in October 1943. The art department of the Office of War Information in London offered him a job as an "artist-photographer" but he volunteered with the [[American Field Service]] instead.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://d22dvihj4pfop3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/05/01152009/AFS-Janus-2010-January.pdf|title=AFS Janus - January 2010}}</ref> After arriving in Naples with a boatload of American troops in November 1944. Penn drove an ambulance in support of the [[British Eighth Army]] as it alternately waited out weather and slogged its way north through a miserable winter in the Italian [[Apennines]]. In July 1945, he was transferred from Italy to India. He photographed the soldiers, medical operations, and camp life for the AFS, and various subjects while bivouacked in India. He sailed back to New York in November 1945.

Penn continued to work at ''Vogue'' throughout his career, photographing covers, portraits, still lifes, fashion, and photographic essays. In the 1950s, Penn founded his own studio in New York and began making advertising photographs.  Over the years, Penn's list of clients grew to include [[General Foods]], [[De Beers]], [[Issey Miyake]], and [[Clinique]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Greenough|first=Sarah|title=Irving Penn Platinum Prints|year=2005|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=0-300-10906-7|pages=167–170}}</ref>

Penn met Swedish fashion model [[Lisa Fonssagrives]] at a photo shoot in 1947.<ref>{{cite web|title=Obituary: Irving Penn|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/6272245/Irving-Penn.html|date=2009-10-08|work=The Daily Telegraph}}</ref><ref name=mightypenn>{{cite web|title=The Mighty Penn|url=http://www.vogue.com/voguedaily/2009/10/the-mighty-penn/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100425043534/http://www.vogue.com/voguedaily/2009/10/the-mighty-penn/|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 25, 2010|date=July 2007|work=Vogue|author=Fraser, Kennedy}}</ref> In 1950, the two married at [[Chelsea Register Office]], and two years later Lisa gave birth to their son, Tom Penn, who would become a metal designer.<ref name=mightypenn /> Lisa Fonssagrives died in 1992. Penn died aged 92 on October 7, 2009<ref>{{cite web|first1=The New York|last1=Times|access-date=2019-01-27|title=Irving Penn, 92, Is Dead|url=https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/irving-penn-92-is-dead/|date=7 October 2009|work=The New York Times}}</ref> at his home in [[Manhattan]].<ref name="nytimes">[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/arts/design/08penn.html ''New York Times'' obituary by Andy Grundberg, October 8, 2009]</ref><ref name="Bernstein, Adam"/>

==Photography==
{{Quote box|align=right|quote=<poem>
"It is perhaps not too much to say that in Penn's prints the 
descriptive resources of the photographic gray scale have
never been more fully exploited."
</poem>|source=—''—[[John Szarkowski]]''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.phillips.com/detail/irving-penn/NY040123/177 | title=Irving Penn - Photographs New York Tuesday, April 4, 2023 }}</ref>}}

Best known for his fashion photography,<ref>{{cite web|last=Gan|first=Vicky|title=Iconic Photography by the Legendary Irving Penn Comes to the American Art Museum|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/iconic-photography-by-the-legendary-irving-penn-comes-to-the-american-art-museum-25926352/|work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|access-date=17 January 2014}}</ref> Penn's repertoire also included portraits of creative greats; ethnographic photographs from around the world; [[Modernist]] still-life works of food, bones, bottles, metal, and found objects; and photographic travel essays.<ref name="Bernstein, Adam"/><ref name="Quintana">{{cite news|last=Gurría-Quintana|first=Angel|title=Irving Penn retrospective|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1a5c191a-1ce5-11df-aef7-00144feab49a.html#axzz2qhTe2IjK|access-date=17 January 2014|newspaper=[[Financial Times]]|date=19 February 2010}}</ref>

Penn was among the earliest photographers to pose subjects against grey or white backdrop and he effectively used its simplicity.<ref name="Bernstein, Adam">{{cite news|last=Bernstein|first=Adam|title=Irving Penn, 92: Fashion, Celebrity Photographer Found Beauty in the Commonplace|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/07/AR2009100703848.html|access-date=17 January 2014|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|date=8 October 2009|author2=Rees-Shapiro, T.}}</ref><ref name="Quintana"/>   During his early years at Vogue, the magazine's art director, Penn developed a bold graphic sensibility that complemented Penn's chic images and embodied modern taste. His use of monochromatic backdrops of black, white, or gray allowed him complete control of natural lighting conditions and enhanced the visual simplicity of his photographs.  In an era when elaborate artificial lighting was the norm, his work stood out from the rest and influenced subsequent fashion photography.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-02-17|title=Irving Penn|url=https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/irving-penn|access-date=2021-12-09|website=International Center of Photography|language=en}}</ref> Expanding his austere studio surroundings, Penn constructed a set of upright angled backdrops, to form a stark, acute corner. Subjects photographed with this technique included [[John Hersey]], [[Martha Graham]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Georgia O'Keeffe]], [[W. H. Auden]], and [[Igor Stravinsky]].

Beginning in 1964, Irving Penn began experimenting with [[platinum print]]ing. Penn had spent his career up to that point making photographs that were seen almost exclusively in reproduction within the glossy pages of magazines and in his pivotal 1960 book Moments Preserved. Penn set himself the challenge of producing photographic prints that would surpass the technical limitations of reprographic media and deliver a deeper visual experience. He was drawn to the antiquated platinum process for its long grayscale – its ability to display a seemingly infinite array of gradations between pure white and absolute black.

The platinum process requires direct contact with the negative, without enlargement, so Penn first needed to create flawless negatives the same size as the desired print. He then hand-coated paper with platinum emulsion. When dry, the paper was sandwiched with the negative and exposed to light before processing. Rigorous experimentation revealed that recoating a print with a secondary emulsion and making a second or third exposure of the same image on a single sheet of paper yielded prints of greater depth and subtlety. Penn solved the problem of aligning and re-aligning the negative and the print surface over multiple exposures by borrowing a technique from the graphic arts: he mounted his paper on a sheet of aluminum with a series of registration guides along the top edge. Penn was guarded about the preparation of his emulsions and his precise formulations varied considerably. He frequently introduced palladium and iron salts into his coatings to achieve desired effects.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.phillips.com/detail/irving-penn/NY040123/177 | title=Irving Penn - Photographs New York Tuesday, April 4, 2023 }}</ref>

Penn's still life compositions are sparse and highly organized,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.jffrank.com/home/latest/london-photography-exhibitions-7-january-2016/|title=London Photography Exhibitions January 2016|date=2016-01-07|newspaper=jfFrank online|language=en-GB|access-date=2016-10-22}}</ref> assemblages of food or objects that articulate the abstract interplay of line and volume. Penn's photographs are composed with a great attention to detail, which continues into his craft of developing and making prints of his photographs.<ref>{{cite web|title=London Photography Exhibitions November 2017|url=https://www.jffrank.com/home/latest/london-photography-exhibitions-november-2017/|website=jfFrank online|publisher=jfFrank|access-date=9 November 2017|date=9 November 2017}}</ref> Penn experimented with many printing techniques, including prints made on aluminum sheets coated with a platinum emulsion rendering the image with a warmth that untoned silver prints lacked.<ref>{{cite book|last=Greenough|first=Sarah|title=Irving Penn Platinum Prints|year=2005|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|isbn=0-300-10906-7|pages=5–20}}</ref> His black and white prints are notable for their deep contrast, giving them a clean, crisp look.

While steeped in the Modernist tradition, Penn also ventured beyond creative boundaries. The exhibition ''Earthly Bodies'' consisted of series of posed nudes whose physical shapes range from thin to plump; while the photographs were taken in 1949 and 1950, they were not exhibited until 1980.

He continued to capture collections by his favorite designers, such as John Galliano for Dior, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, and Christian Lacroix, for Vogue, incorporating these darker themes into his images.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dazed |date=2017-04-24 |title=How Irving Penn revolutionised fashion photography |url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/35683/1/how-irving-penn-revolutionised-fashion-photography-met-exhibition |access-date=2022-04-22 |website=Dazed |language=en}}</ref>

==Exhibitions==
*1975: ''Irving Penn: Recent Works, Photographs of Cigarettes'', Museum of Modern Art, New York
*1975: ''I Platini di Irving Penn: 25 Anni di Fotografia'', Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin
*1975: ''Irving Penn: Platinum Plates'', [[The Photographers' Gallery]], London
*1977: ''Irving Penn: Street Material. Photographs in Platinum Metals'', The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
*1980: Exhibition at the Center for Visual Arts, Oakland, California
*1984: ''Irving Penn'', a retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
*1986: ''Irving Penn: Printemps des arts de Monte Carlo'', Monte Carlo
*1990: ''Irving Penn: Master Images'', National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
*1990: ''Irving Penn: Platinum Test Material'', Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
*1994: ''Irving Penn: Collection Privée/Privatsammlung'', Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Fribourg, Switzerland
*1995: ''Irving Penn Photographs: A Donation in Memory of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn'', Moderna Museet, Stockholm
*1997: ''Le Bain: Dancers' Workshop of San Francisco'', Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
*1997: ''Irving Penn: A Career in Photography'', [[The Art Institute of Chicago]]
*2001: ''Irving Penn: Objects (Still Lifes) for the Printed Page'', Museum Folkwang, Essen
*2002: ''Dancer: 1999 Nudes by Irving Penn'', Whitnew Museum of American Art, New York
*2002: ''Earthly Bodies: Irving Penn's Nudes, 1949–1950'', The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
*2004: ''Dahomey (1967)'', The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
*2005: ''Irving Penn: Platinum Prints'', the [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, D.C.
*2008: ''Close Encounters'', Morgan Library & Museum, New York
*2009: ''The Small Trades'', [[J. Paul Getty Museum]], Los Angeles:<ref>{{cite web|title=Irving Penn: Small Trades|url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/26765/getty-acquires-irving-penns-most-extensive-work|access-date=23 March 2012}}</ref> a collection of 252 full-length portraits by Penn from 1950 to 1951
*2010: Exhibition at the [[National Portrait Gallery (London)]]: an exhibit of over 120 portraits of people from the worlds of literature, music and the visual and performing arts
*2012: ''Irving Penn: Diverse Worlds'', Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet), Malmö, Sweden
*2013: ''Irving Penn: On Assignment'', Pace Gallery, New York City, New York.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2019-01-27|title=Pace Gallery - "On Assignment" - Irving Penn|url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12595/on-assignment|website=Pace Gallery|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209124014/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12595/on-assignment|archive-date=2018-12-09|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*2015-2016: ''Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty'', career retrospective of 146 photographs at the [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]].<ref name=beyondbeauty>{{cite web|title=Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty Exhibition|url=http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2015/irving_penn/|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|access-date=2 October 2015}}</ref>
*2017: ''Irving Penn: Centennial'', [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], New York City;<ref>{{cite web|title=Irving Penn: Centennial|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2017/irving-penn-centennial|website=Metropolitan Museum of Art|access-date=19 July 2017}}</ref> ''Irving Penn - Le Centenaire,'' [[Grand Palais]], Paris.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

==Major collections==
The Art Institute of Chicago holds the Irving Penn Paper and Photographic Archives, which were donated to the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries and the Department of Photography in 1995. In addition, the Art Institute of Chicago has more than 200 of Penn's fine art prints in its collection, and has mounted several exhibitions of work by the artist including the retrospective ''Irving Penn: A Career in Photography'' (1997–1998) which traveled internationally as well as ''Irving Penn: Underfoot'' (2013).

The [[Smithsonian American Art Museum|Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM)]] possesses a large collection of Penn's works, including a silver gelatin print of Penn's ''The Tarot Reader'', a photograph from 1949 of [[Jean Patchett]] and [[surrealism|surrealist]] [[Painting|painter]] [[Bridget Bate Tichenor|Bridget Tichenor]].<ref name="Irving Penn">[http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=19489 The Tarot Reader (Jean Patchett and Bridget Tichenor) - New York 1949 by Irving Penn SAAM]</ref> In 2013, the museum received 100 images as a gift from the Irving Penn Foundation, significantly increasing the number of Penn's works in the collection to 161 images.<ref>Ashley Southall (August 9, 2013), [http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/09/irving-penn-photographs-to-bolster-smithsonian-collection/ Irving Penn Photographs to Bolster Smithsonian Collection] ''[[New York Times]]''.</ref> The Irving Penn Foundation's gift formed the basis of the exhibition, ''Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty,'' which was shown at SAAM before traveling to other museum venues around the United States.<ref name=beyondbeauty />

==Art Market==
In the April 2023 [[Phillips (auctioneers)|Phillips]] Photography auctioned "''Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn)''" (1950) for the third highest price of the entire auction at $355,600.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.phillips.com/detail/irving-penn/NY040123/177 | title=Irving Penn - Photographs New York Tuesday, April 4, 2023 }}</ref>  "''Cuzco Children''" (1948) also sold for above hight-estimate $95,250.

==Awards==
*1987: The Cultural Award from the German Society for Photography (DGPh)<ref name="dgph">"[http://www.dgph.de/english/the-cultural-award-of-the-deutsche-gesellschaft-fuer-photographie The Cultural Award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie (DGPh)]". Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie e.V.. Accessed 7 March 2017.</ref>

==Bibliography==
*''Moments Preserved''. 1960
*''Worlds in a Small Room''. 1974. {{ISBN|978-0-670-79025-8}}
*''Inventive Paris Clothes, 1909–1939''. 1977. {{ISBN|0-670-40067-X}}
*''Flowers''. 1980. {{ISBN|0-517-540746}}
*''Passage''. 1991. {{ISBN|0-679-40491-0}}
*''Drawings''. 1999. {{ISBN|0-9665480-0-0}}
*''The Astronomers Plan a Voyage to Earth''. 1999. {{ISBN|0-9665480-1-9}}
*''Irving Penn Regards The Work of Issey Miyake''. 1999. {{ISBN|0-224-05966-1}}
*''Still Life''. 2001. {{ISBN|0-8212-2702-5}}
*''A Notebook at Random''. 2004. {{ISBN|0-8212-6192-4}}
*''Photographs of Dahomey''. 2004. {{ISBN|3-7757-1449-9}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*''Irving Penn : A Career in Photography''. Colin Westerbeck. 1997. {{ISBN|0-8212-2459-X}}
*''Earthly Bodies: Irving Penn's Nudes, 1949-50''. By Irving Penn, Maria Morris Hambourg, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002. {{ISBN|0-8212-2787-4}}
*''Irving Penn: Platinum Prints''. Sarah Greenough, David Summers. 2005. {{ISBN|0-300-10906-7}}
*''Irving Penn: Small Trades. 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-89236-996-6}}
*''Irving Penn Portraits''. 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-85514-417-0}}
*''Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty''. Merry A. Foresta. Yale University Press, 2015. {{ISBN|978-0-300214-901}}
*''Irving Penn: Centennial''. Maria Morris Hambourg, Jeff L. Rosenheim, Alexandra Dennett, Philippe Garner, Adam Kirsch, Harald E.L. Prins, Vasilios Zatse., New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2017. {{ISBN|978-1588396181}}
**''Irving Penn: Le Centenaire.'' Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2017.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.irvingpenn.com Irving Penn Foundation]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130510173158/http://www.vogue.com/voguepedia/Irving_Penn Voguepedia Irving Penn]
*[http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/IrvingPennArchives Irving Penn Archives] at the Art Institute of Chicago
*[https://2.americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/penn/ Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty] - online image gallery from 2015 to 2016 [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]] exhibition
*[http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/penn/index.html Irving Penn: Small Trades at the J. Paul Getty Museum]
*{{MoMA artist|4548}}

{{Hasselblad Award}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, Irving}}
[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:2009 deaths]]
[[Category:American fashion photographers]]
[[Category:Food photographers]]
[[Category:Interior photographers]]
[[Category:American portrait photographers]]
[[Category:Photographers from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Artists from Manhattan]]
[[Category:People from Plainfield, New Jersey]]
[[Category:20th-century American photographers]]
[[Category:21st-century American photographers]]
[[Category:20th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:21st-century American male artists]]
[[Category:Photographers from New Jersey]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Abraham Lincoln High School (Brooklyn) alumni]]
[[Category:American Field Service personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:The New Yorker people]]
[[Category:Jews from New Jersey]]