Irving Penn : Photographer Biography
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Penn was born June 16, 1917, in Plainfield, New Jersey. He attended the University of Arts in Philadelphia to pursue painting. In 1938, he moved to New York after finishing his schooling. Penn was a student to Alexey Brodovitch and was hired at Harper’s Bazaar to be an assistant illustrator. Penn quickly moved his way up and became the director of advertising at Saks Fifth Avenue. In 1943, he returned to New York and started the job of assistant designer, at Vogue, to art director Alexander Liberman. He was to help Liberman select Vogue photo covers. Liberman liked Penn’s ideas so much, he asked Penn to shoot them himself. Having no real photography training, Penn shot his first Vogue cover for the October 1, 1943, issue. This particular photograph was a still life featuring an unusual arrangement – a belt, handbag, pair of white gloves, and a flashy costume ring. Popular Photography named him one of the World’s Ten Greatest Photographers, in 1958. In the 1960’s, Penn and his wife moved out to the country side of New York. In a barn Penn spent many hours trying to figure out a way to print photographs on platinum, instead of silver, enabling a more realistic tone, which he did succeed in. Later in his life, Penn captured images of inanimate subjects such as busses, cigarette butts, and sometimes animal skulls. Though he is glamorized for being a celebrity photographer, he enjoyed taking pictures of the poor and peasants. All of his photographs are set up and staged, but the emotion in them is real. Irving Penn passed away on October 7, 2009. Irving Penn will be known for his black and white portraits, and simple compositions. His work will inspire photographers of all ages for many years to come.