Irving Penn - Master Photographer Dead at 92

Irving Penn's Studio in Paris, September 12, 1950

"I preferred the limited task of dealing only with the person himself, away from the accidentals of his daily life, simply in his own clothes and adornments, isolated in my studio. From himself alone I would distill the image I wanted, and in the cold light of day would put it onto the film... Taking people away from their natural circumstances and putting them into the studio in front of a camera did not simply isolate them, it transformed them."
-Irving Penn

Steel Mill Firefighter, New York, 1951

Cordonnier (Cobbler), Paris, 1950

Prizefighter, New York 1951

"Harlequin Dress" (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1950

"The Twelve Most Photographed Models", New York, 1947

Truman Capote, New York, 1965

Georgia O'Keeffe, New York, 1948

Pablo Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, France, 1957

Kate Moss, 1996

Vogue July 2007 issue

Vogue July 2007 issue

Cate Blanchett, Vogue July 2007 issue

Irving Penn (June 16, 1917 – October 7, 2009) New York, 1951

Irving Penn, one of the 20th century’s most prolific and influential photographers of fashion and the famous, whose signature blend of classical elegance and cool minimalism was recognizable to magazine readers and museumgoers worldwide, died on Wednesday (Oct 7, 2009) at his home in Manhattan. He was 92.

Above is the New York Times obituary by Andy Grundberg. Click here to read the rest of the article.
Also check out the Mighty Penn article by Kennedy Fraser that was published in Vogue’s July 2007 issue.

Also check out Goodbye, Mr. Penn by Greg Pond on SPD blog.

He will be missed deeply.

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