Irving Penn may be one of the most well-known fashion photographers of all time. His work has been seen worldwide and still graces the walls and pages of museums and books today. He can also be recognized as the twentieth century’s most amazing and influential artist, whose quality of work and unique style will be forever acknowledged. Throughout Penn’s career he photographed everything from food, flowers and still lifes to celebrities, nudes, street life and fashion. Penn declared “that ‘photographing a cake can be art,’ his later work showed an astonishing ability to find the beauty in the commonplace” (Bernstein and Shapiro). But Penn’s contributions to fashion and editorial photography may have influenced and changed the field forever.
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He opens the Irving Penn Studio in 1953 in order to continue and expand his work for Vogue and to freelance in advertising. His first advertising campaign was for Jell-O. He also photographed advertisements for Plymouth automobiles, Clinique, Chanel, Modess and different linen brands. Penn was “credited with eliminating the barrier between commercial and fine art” (Bernstein and Shapiro). Penn used his experience in fashion and combined it with his efforts in advertising. He would use models for linen and feminine hygiene products to suggest that the products were fancy and luxury. “[His] pictures exhibited ‘the control of an art director fused with the process of an artist’” (Grundberg). Penn was capable of making the viewer want the product through his ability to combine advertising and fine …show more content…
I was completely fascinated and in awe by his book Worlds in a Small Room. I had to read the introduction three times through. His words are like a story, illuminating a place yet to exist where one can photograph or be photographed in a neutral room, where a story of a foreign place can be told through a single person. As much as I would have wanted to meet Irving Penn, I also wouldn’t want to meet him. Sometimes you get an image of a person and their personality in your head, and meeting them could ruin it. I’m jealous of his travels and his amazing work. Also, of his confidence to do whatever he wants in a photograph. I am inspired by Penn’s talent, persistence, and accomplishments. I have yet to find my own style of photography. But I think that in learning about Irving Penn, he has inspired be to become my own photographer with my own unique
He opens the Irving Penn Studio in 1953 in order to continue and expand his work for Vogue and to freelance in advertising. His first advertising campaign was for Jell-O. He also photographed advertisements for Plymouth automobiles, Clinique, Chanel, Modess and different linen brands. Penn was “credited with eliminating the barrier between commercial and fine art” (Bernstein and Shapiro). Penn used his experience in fashion and combined it with his efforts in advertising. He would use models for linen and feminine hygiene products to suggest that the products were fancy and luxury. “[His] pictures exhibited ‘the control of an art director fused with the process of an artist’” (Grundberg). Penn was capable of making the viewer want the product through his ability to combine advertising and fine …show more content…
I was completely fascinated and in awe by his book Worlds in a Small Room. I had to read the introduction three times through. His words are like a story, illuminating a place yet to exist where one can photograph or be photographed in a neutral room, where a story of a foreign place can be told through a single person. As much as I would have wanted to meet Irving Penn, I also wouldn’t want to meet him. Sometimes you get an image of a person and their personality in your head, and meeting them could ruin it. I’m jealous of his travels and his amazing work. Also, of his confidence to do whatever he wants in a photograph. I am inspired by Penn’s talent, persistence, and accomplishments. I have yet to find my own style of photography. But I think that in learning about Irving Penn, he has inspired be to become my own photographer with my own unique