Irving Penn, 1917 to 2009

Photographer Irving Penn died yesterday in his New York City apartment at the age of 92. Penn began working with Vogue in 1943 and became famous for his elegant, spare fashion images, including many of his wife, model Lisa Fonssagrives, whom he married in 1950. Designer Issey Miyake and cosmetics brand Clinique were long-time advertising clients of Penn’s and for the later he created revolutionary campaigns that focused on the products, rather than models.

Outside of the fashion realm, Penn created portraits, not only of international figures such as Picasso and Kate Moss, but also every day society. In 1948, Penn travelled to Peru for Vogue and, separately, ended up photographing families who lived in the Peruvian countryside against a simple seamless background. In the early ’50s, he similarly created a series of pictures of tradesmen working in New York, London and Paris. [NYTimes, WWD]

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