Irving Penn

Irving Penn was one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. He photographed famous cultural figures, including artists such as Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso, Louise Bourgeois and Salvador Dalí, and elevated fashion photography to an art form through his work with Vogue, to which he contributed for over six decades. Penn was known for his spare compositional style, often photographing his subjects in the natural light of the studio; his images are marked by simplicity, sophistication and tonal subtleties. Penn photographed in both grayscale and color, and also experimented with nineteenth-century printing processes. His work has been exhibited around the world and is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Moderna Museet, among others. Penn also photographed shopkeepers, nudes and still lifes. Between 1948 and 1971, he took ethnographic photographs of the communities he met on his travels. His frames sold for up to six figures at auction.