Irving Penn facts for kids

Irving Penn (born June 16, 1917 – died October 7, 2009) was a famous American photographer. He was well-known for his amazing fashion photography, portraits of people, and still lifes (pictures of objects).

Penn worked for Vogue magazine for many years. He also did advertising work for big brands like Issey Miyake and Clinique. His photographs have been shown all over the world. They still inspire many photographers today.

Early Life and Learning

Irving Penn was born on June 16, 1917, in Plainfield, New Jersey. His parents were Harry Penn and Sonia Greenberg. His younger brother, Arthur Penn, later became a famous film director.

Irving went to Abraham Lincoln High School. There he learned about graphic design from a teacher named Leon Friend.

From 1934 to 1938, Penn studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. This school is now called the University of the Arts. He studied drawing, painting, and graphic arts. While he was still a student, he worked for Harper's Bazaar magazine. They even published some of his drawings!

A Career in Photography

After college, Penn worked as a freelance designer for three years. He started taking his first amateur photos during this time. In 1940, he became the art director at Saks Fifth Avenue. He stayed there for a year.

Then, Penn decided to travel. He spent a year painting and taking pictures in Mexico and across the US. When he came back to New York, Alexander Liberman offered him a job at Vogue magazine. Penn first worked on how the magazine pages were arranged. Soon, Liberman asked him to try photography.

Penn's first photo cover for VOGUE magazine came out in October 1943. During World War II, he volunteered with the American Field Service. He drove an ambulance in Italy and India, photographing soldiers and camp life. He returned to New York in November 1945.

Penn continued to work at Vogue for his whole career. He took photos for covers, portraits, still lifes, and fashion stories. In the 1950s, Penn opened his own studio in New York. He began taking photos for advertisements. Over the years, he worked with many clients. These included General Foods, De Beers, Issey Miyake, and Clinique.

In 1947, Penn met Swedish fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives during a photo shoot. They got married in 1950. Two years later, their son, Tom Penn, was born. Tom later became a metal designer. Lisa Fonssagrives passed away in 1992. Irving Penn died on October 7, 2009, at his home in Manhattan. He was 92 years old.

Irving Penn's Photography Style

Irving Penn is most famous for his fashion photography. But he also took many other types of pictures. He photographed famous creative people. He took pictures of different cultures from around the world. He also created modern still lifes. These were photos of everyday objects like food, bones, bottles, and metal.

Penn was one of the first photographers to use simple grey or white backgrounds. He used this simple style very well. This made his photos look clean and modern. He could control the natural light perfectly. This made his pictures stand out. At a time when many photographers used lots of fancy lights, Penn's simple approach was unique. It influenced many fashion photographers who came after him.

Penn also created a special studio setup. He used two angled backdrops to form a sharp corner. He photographed many famous people in this corner. Some of them were John Hersey, Martha Graham, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Georgia O'Keeffe, W. H. Auden, and Igor Stravinsky.

Starting in 1964, Irving Penn began trying out a special printing method. It was called platinum printing. Before this, his photos were mostly seen in magazines. Penn wanted to make prints that looked even better. He liked the platinum process because it could show many shades of gray. This made the photos look very deep and detailed.

To make a platinum print, Penn had to create a perfect negative. It had to be the exact same size as the final print. Then, he would hand-coat paper with a special liquid called platinum emulsion. After it dried, he would place the negative on the paper. He would then expose it to light. Sometimes, he would coat the paper again and expose it multiple times. This made the prints even richer. Penn was very careful about his special methods. He often added other metals like palladium to get different effects.

Penn's still life photos are very neat and organized. He carefully arranged food or objects. He paid great attention to every detail in his photos. This care continued when he developed and printed them. His black and white prints are known for their strong contrast. This gives them a very clean and sharp look.

Exhibitions of His Work

Irving Penn's photographs have been shown in many museums and galleries. Here are some of his major exhibitions:

• 1975: Irving Penn: Recent Works, Photographs of Cigarettes, Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 1975: I Platini di Irving Penn: 25 Anni di Fotografia, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin
• 1975: Irving Penn: Platinum Plates, The Photographers' Gallery, London
• 1977: Irving Penn: Street Material. Photographs in Platinum Metals, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• 1980: Exhibition at the Center for Visual Arts, Oakland, California
• 1984: Irving Penn, a retrospective, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
• 1986: Irving Penn: Printemps des arts de Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo
• 1990: Irving Penn: Master Images, National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
• 1990: Irving Penn: Platinum Test Material, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona
• 1994: Irving Penn: Collection Privée/Privatsammlung, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Fribourg, Switzerland
• 1995: Irving Penn Photographs: A Donation in Memory of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
• 1997: Le Bain: Dancers' Workshop of San Francisco, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
• 1997: Irving Penn: A Career in Photography, The Art Institute of Chicago
• 2001: Irving Penn: Objects (Still Lifes) for the Printed Page, Museum Folkwang, Essen
• 2004: Dahomey (1967), The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• 2005: Irving Penn: Platinum Prints, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• 2008: Close Encounters, Morgan Library & Museum, New York
• 2009: The Small Trades, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles: a collection of 252 full-length portraits by Penn from 1950 to 1951
• 2010: Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (London): an exhibit of over 120 portraits of people from the worlds of literature, music and the visual and performing arts
• 2012: Irving Penn: Diverse Worlds, Museum of Modern Art (Moderna Museet), Malmö, Sweden
• 2013: Irving Penn: On Assignment, Pace Gallery, New York City, New York.
• 2015-2016: Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, career retrospective of 146 photographs at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
• 2017: Irving Penn: Centennial, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Irving Penn - Le Centenaire, Grand Palais, Paris.

Major Collections of His Work

Many important museums have large collections of Irving Penn's work.

• The Art Institute of Chicago has his paper and photo archives. They also have over 200 of his fine art prints.
• The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) also has many of Penn's photos. In 2013, they received 100 more images from the Irving Penn Foundation. This made their collection much bigger. These photos were part of an exhibition called Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty.

Awards

• 1987: The Cultural Award from the German Society for Photography (DGPh)

See also

In Spanish: Irving Penn para niños