• Irving Penn Centennial. The cover has a black and white photo of the artist leaning on a camera.
  • The book is open to two pages, with a black and white portrait on each page.
  • The book is open to two pages with a black and white photo by the artist on each page.
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Irving Penn: Centennial

$70.00
$70.00

Irving Penn (1917–2009) was among the most esteemed and influential photographers of the twentieth century. This indispensable book features one of the largest selections of Penn's photographs ever compiled—nearly 300 in all—including famous and beloved images as well as works that have never been published. Celebrating the centennial of Penn's birth, this volume spans the entirety of his nearly 70-year career.

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Lively essays acquaint readers with Penn's primary subjects and campaigns, including early documentary scenes and imagery; portraits of cultural figures and celebrities; fashion; female nudes; peoples of Peru, Dahomey (Benin), New Guinea, and Morocco; and still lifes. Rounding out the book are discussions of Penn's advertising pictures and his painstaking printing processes, as well as an illustrated chronology. Irving Penn: Centennial is essential for any fan of this artists work or of the history of twentieth-century photography.
Publication details

Publisher: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Authors: Maria Morris Hambourg and Jeff L. Rosenheim
Pages: 372
Illustrations: 365
Format: Hardcover
Dimensions: 10'' x 12''
Irving Penn Centennial. The cover has a black and white photo of the artist leaning on a camera.
The book is open to two pages, with a black and white portrait on each page.
The book is open to two pages with a black and white photo by the artist on each page.

Irving Penn

Irving Penn studied design from 1934–38 with Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art. Following a year painting in Mexico, he returned to New York City and began working at Vogue magazine in 1943, where Alexander Liberman was art director. Penn photographed for Vogue and commercial clients in America and abroad for nearly 70 years. Whether an innovative fashion image, striking portrait, or compelling still life, each of Penn’s pictures bears his trademark style of elegant aesthetic simplicity.

Learn more about the artist