Irving Penn-Vogue’s masterful photographer

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Irving Penn, the great American photographer, the Metropolitan Museum of Art held his photo exhibition from April 24 to July 30 this year, featuring some 200 photographs of his, and reviewed his nearly 70 years career of cfl Jerseys vancouver photography. Among the works exhibited, various themes are covered such as still life, fashion, Peruvian indigenous people, urban laborers, nude women, celebrity portraits, and the records of how he experienced the nature.

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Rochas Mermaid Dress, 1950, Paris

 

Penn was born in 1917 in a Russian Jewish family in New Jersey. He gained his fame for his fashion photography for Vogue, and stamped his name for his portraits. Though being an important figure in the fashion photography industry, Penn didn’t Adrian Gonzalez Jerseys start his career as a photographer. When he was in college, he studied painting and graphic design with famous designer Alexey Brodovitch, who was the art director of Harper’s Bazzar. (It is sometimes a good thing to have someone introducing you into a new field.) Given this advantage of social doug flutie cfl Jerseys connection, Penn already published some illustrations in Bazzar as a student, and got access to the fashion industry, paving the way for a long-standing indissoluble bond with Vogue.

After graduation, Penn served as the artistic director of Saks Fifth Avenue. In 1941 he went to Mexico and spent a year to polish his art skill, which allowed him to have a deeper thinking of photography, as well as the world. After returning to the U.S., he was referred by Alexey Brodovitch to the artistic director of Vogue, Alexander Liberman, and began his legendary career since then.

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Girl with Tobacco on Tongue, Budda Baker Jerseys New York, 1951

The covers of Vogue is the most incisive embodiment of the half-century partnership between Penn and Vogue. Penn shot some 150 covers for Vogue. Each and every photo is splendid, featuring the style of both Penn and Vogue. This is probably the highest level of partnership – like fish and water. It is the water that keeps the fish alive, while the fish keeps the water vivid.

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Vogue Cover, 1943

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Vogue Cover, 1946

Above are two covers of Vogue from the 40s. None of them was starred with a super model or a movie star. This was then a trend propagating certain attitude towards life and fashion in such a manner — through the meticulousness and elegance of still life. Penn was good at shooting still life. He didn’t intend to bestow upon his subjects too much room for over-interpretation. No matter what the subject was, a piece of cake, a spoon with residual salad sauce, a burnt cigarette, or a malfunctioning pocket watch, Penn tried only catching their authentic texture, and amplifying the sense of beauty embedded, the beauty of mundanity.

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Salad Ingredients, New York, 1947

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Vogue Cover, 1950

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Vogue Cover, 1950

After the 50s, beautiful female figures gradually occupied the cover of fashion magazines, concomitant with the ever-growing entertainment industry and the rapidly developing mass media. Since then, Penn had created cfl Jerseys vancouver untold masterpieces for Vogue.

In current exhibition at the Met, we will see Penn’s still life and some of his works dedicated to Vogue.

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Vogue Cover, 1948-1952

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Vogue doug flutie cfl Jerseys Cover, 2004

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Nicole Kidman in a Chanel Couture by Karl Lagerfeld, 2004

Praised as “a living fossil of portraits photography”, Penn usually CFL Jerseys avoided using props deliberately. All he needed was nothing more than simplest lighting and background, which always gave his photos an unparalleled texture, and a sense of vitality that was almost tactile and respirable.

Penn remarked that, people tend to show the world through the lens what they want to show, yet what is outside the lens is more precious, and more exciting than believed. Before shooting, Penn would have casual conversations with his subjects, trying to open their hearts. Only so were the people CFL Jerseys he shot able to relax, letting out their true feelings and ideas, which allowed the moment to persist against time. Penn always wanted his photos to be comparable to paintings that last for centuries for the weight and tension they carried, and keep the temperament and emotions of the depicted subject intact through time and space.

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Truman Capote, New York, 1956

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Audrey Hepburn, Paris, 1951

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Salvator Dalì, New York, 1947

Although Penn’s main Authentic DeMario Davis Jerseys focus was on commercial photography, it doesn’t mean he only took pictures of people who lived a fancy life. In the exhibition, we are able to see pictures of indigenous people Penn took in Peru, and a series of urban working class: workers and their tools, which is my favorite part.

In Penn’s mind, there was no “class” among workers, no matter it is an upscale restaurant waiter, or a city cleaner. Penn took pictures of waiters, cleaners, cooks and other manual workers that were especially marginalized in our society, constructing a complete expression and record of the working class in his time. According to Penn, workers were not any lesser than upper class just because they got paid less. As long as one works hard, lives sincerely, and makes contribution to this society, he is equally respectable. Every worker has his own tool, own life, own story, own joys and sorrows.

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Thanks Mr. Penn for freezing those beautiful moments, so that we have the honor to see the stories and legends across the river of time.

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