Burning off the page. 🔥Irving Penn, Four-Eyed Beauty (1960-1970) on view now at @pacegallery Los Angeles.
40 works created by the artist—whose work transcended the pages of magazines to the walls of museums and galleries—between the late 1930s and early 2000s.
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While most of Penn’s work was of people - portraits, fashion, and the like - his still life images are just as well composed and well regarded. The images grew out of experiments with printing that Penn began when Vogue’s reproductions of his photos were not meeting his expectations. In the process, Penn created some of his most famous works and revolutionised the ways in which magazines and publications reproduced images in the pre-digital age. These methods were in use until digital printing became cheap and of high enough quality in the 90’s.
Penn kept up an intense work schedule for his entire life, photographing into his 90’s.
He passed away at 92 in New York City.
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After leaving Vogue in 1953, Penn set up his own studio and began working commercially as well as continuing to create personal work - it was on one of these shoots that he met his wife Lisa Fonssagrives - they were married until her death in 1992.
Unlike a number of his contemporaries, Penn’s work was minimalist and simple. Often shot in his NYC studio, he used set designers drop cloths to create a simple backdrop on which to place his subjects. Favouring a Hasselblad Camera on a tripod, Penn’s work is posed and detail oriented. His commercial and fashion work are celebrated, but his portraits are perhaps his best known work. This iconic image of Peter and Dagmar Freuchen was shot in his studio against one of these backdrops.
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Today on Back to School - we’re taking a look at legendary photographer Irving Penn!
Penn was born in 1917 to a working class New Jersey family. After winning a scholarship and studying graphic design, Penn moved to New York City and began working for Harper’s Bazaar in their art department as a graphic designer. After moving to Vogue, and getting his first taste of photography, he was offered a full time position at the magazine. Penn instead opted to volunteer for the American Army instead, where he was sent overseas to work as an ambulance driver. During his time overseas, Penn began photographing his surroundings - soldiers, war and the destruction of the war effort.
These photos - while a far cry from his later more refined effort, show off his eye for composition and framing even with wildly different subject matter.
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