of all the fashion photography masters of the 20th century that Grace the pages of Vogue none were more integral to the identity of the magazine than Irving pen with an astonishing 165 covers over the 66 years spent at Vogue Irving Pen's impact on the magazine cannot be overstated born in 1917 in planfield New Jersey to Russian Jewish parents Irving Penn's interest in the Arts brought him to study at the Philadelphia Museum School of industrial art where he was exposed to the work of surrealist artists of the time Penn had the good Fortune of having Alexi brovich as a professor the famed art director of Harper's Bazar who brought pen to work as his assistant at the magazine after graduating in 1938 Penn began to work as an art director for sax fith Avenue until 1941 suffering from the lack of inspiration from working for a department store he spent a year traveling through the American South to Mexico with the intention to paint his way through the Journey but found himself turning to his riflex camera he bought a few years earlier the influence of mgre and Deli are clear in these early photographs with surrealist elements pushing in through all the paintings he did during these travels were tossed out but through his camera pen found a way to express his vision more efficiently once back to the US Penn was hired by vogue's art director Alexander liberman part of his duties at Vogue were to create magazine layouts and develop concepts for the photographers to execute but under the encouragement of liberman he began to take the photographs himself with his first vog cover in October 1st 1943 Penn had a heart condition that prevented him from serving in the US Army but in 1944 he volunteered for the American field service and was sent over overseas he documented his journey and even in the horrors of War Penn's artistic eye came through pen returned to Vogue in 1946 where he would continue his upward trajectory and solidify his place in the pages of the magazine this photo of Carmen Del aaiche from 1946 can now be viewed as almost an overview of Pence's future work portraiture fashion still life all with his signature minimalist style in 1947 he was given the assignment of shooting 12 beautiful women and that is where he first met the Swedish model Lisa Fon Greaves she was already an established model by that time and as the pair continued to work together the relationship went from professional to personal a through line in Penn's work is how all his subjects are treated equally in front of his camera a famous actress is presented in the same way as a Tradesman Penn developed a technique to democratize his subjects strip away all the artifice and reveal something behind the facade by photographing his subjects in a confined Corner the restrictive space shows how comfortable the sitter was in the situation either exposing their personality or retreating into themselves artist Georgia o'keef hated her Corner portrait and you can see how uneasy she felt in the space as opposed to writer triman capot whose personality shines through he would also shoot many of his portraits with the same tattered carpet a far cry from the opulent Parisian drawing rooms that were expected from his predecessors like cesil Beaton if we look at the portrait of Peter fryin and his wife Dagmar the austerity of the space puts two diametrically opposite figures on equal footing Peter and AR Arctic explorer who shoveled his way out of an avalanche with a chisel he fashioned from his own feces commands an imposing presence in his Polar Bear fur coat Dagmar a fashion illustrator that worked for Harper's bizar and Vogue is the epitome of Elegance and fragility making the contrast in the photo even more arresting over the Christmas holidays in 1948 Irving pen was sent on assignment to Peru to shoot the model Jee patchet for the magazine he spent the first week absorbing his newest surroundings but not taking a single photograph until the moment of inspiration struck when Jean sat against a to rub her sore foot with that photograph the story began capturing Jean with a realism not seen before in Vogue with their travel photographers the scenes were not overtly glamorous but rather a more humble depiction through the role Jee patchet was playing in her interactions with the local people pen extended his stay to photograph some indigenous peruvians in a studio he found in Cusco resulting in some of his most acclaimed work of his career he wrote of the experience when subjects arrived to the studio to be photographed they found me instead of the proprietor instead of them paying me I paid them for posing a very confusing affair during those 3 days he shot over 2,000 negatives a selection of which were published in Vogue the following year [Music] the 1950s were a particularly memorable period in Irving Penn's work his voice as a photographer Blended perfectly with the Silhouettes from designers like Christian Di and Christal Balenciaga the decade began with pen shooting his first UT collections in Paris with his beloved Lisa this time in the studio of a former photography school with these beautifully crafted Creations pen used Lisa's talents to paint in the frame her body transforming from a mermaid to an iris [Music] besides shooting the lovely models in the cout Creations pen would use these travel assignments as an opportunity to shoot the working class just as he did in Peru what would eventually become his series called small trades pen photographed the unsung heroes from The Butchers to the Bakers the real people in Paris London and New York that kept the cities moving 1950 was also the year that pen would photograph Jee patcha in a cover story that set the tone for vogue's vision of the new decade and one of the Magazine's most famous covers in history this also marked a shift in the look of the models pulling away from wholesome smiling faces and favor for the IC sophistication executed so masterfully by models like jeene patet and deima Irving Penn's photographs in the 1960s were dominated by a new set of beauties like jeene shrimpton Lauren Hutton and verushka as the fashion became less rigid and sculptural and favor for a more modern silhouette these women reflected a new type of feminine expression this shift also brought Diana velan from her role as fashion editor of Harper's bizaar to the editor and chief of Vogue along with her favorite photographer Richard avidon now style is something you're born with it's like class you don't acquire it you don't Quire it but of course you could put your shoulder to the wheel and apply it but acquire it but she wouldn't Irving pan and Richard avidon were the two biggest fashion photographers in the world by that time and although it may seem that having them both at Vogue would create a giant tension it was actually a great benefit to pen yes his fashion images were beloved by the magazine but the 20 plus page fashion stories were not conducive to his approach to photography avidon was known for capturing those accidental moments found while shooting the booming music and dancing allowed for spontaneity but pen was meticulous and unwavering in his vision his shoots were silent he would refuse to take a photograph if every element was not exactly how he envisioned so pen being able to focus on still life and portraits these two Titans were able to share the pages of Vogue in a way that made everyone happy starting in 1967 vog commissioned pen to shoot a different flower for every year of their Christmas edition tulips poppies peonies orchids roses lies and Bonas by removing the flowers from their natural setting and placing them against a white background their form becomes abstracted and the Silhouettes take a different meaning in 1980 he released a compilation of these photographs and published flowers a subject that pen would continue to shoot for [Music] decades Irving pen saw his role as photographer extending beyond the moment when he would press the camera Trigger he was constantly revisiting photos already taken spending hours in the dark room making adjustments on how the prints would be exposed which drove him to resurrect a 19th century printing process using platinum and Palladium Metals this method gave his photos a depth of tone that separated his work from his contemporaries what was unique to Penn's printing process was that he had adapted graphic arts equipment pin registration equipment and vacuum frames that would not normally be used by a conventional dark room practitioner and apply it to the making of platinum Palladium prints the Platinum printing process is a contact printing process pen would bolt registration strips to the top of his printing plates the paper is coated with the Platinum coating pen would apply the negative to the registration strips and then Expose and develop them and then he would Reco Expose and develop numerous times in order to increase or decrease exposure in select areas of the picture to achieve the desired finish print in thematic opposition to his still life portraits of flowers is a series on found objects pen would send his assistants out scouring the streets of New York City for Street trash which he would examined back at the studio in hopes of finding the perfect level of Decay these photographs were portraits of humanity The Echoes of lives lived and the mess we leave behind his photos of cigarettes are of particular significance having lost his mentor Alexi brovich to cancer shortly before beginning the series given the success of his photos taken in Peru Penn was regularly sent on assignment around the world by Vogue Giving readers a window into entirely different worlds pen would travel with his team of assistants and they would bring a coll collapsible photo studio a way for him to control his surroundings and tie all of these locations [Music] [Music] [Music] together [Music] [Music] [Music] parallel to his personal work and that at Vogue pen had several commercial clients the campaigns he shot for Clinique were approached in the same way that he would his Still Life photography and they developed a visual vocabulary that fortified their status as a luxury Cosmetics brand in the close of is Miyaki pen found a strong silhouette a modern echo of the Balenciaga gowns from the 1950s and the pair began a collaboration born out of deep mutual respect isay Miyaki said of the collaboration I was looking for one person who could look at my clothing hear my voice and answer me back through his own creation through his eyes pensan reinterprets the clothes gives them new breath and presents them to me from a new Vantage Point pen shows me what I do Irving pen and is Miyaki never met in person throughout all the years they had worked together but they were both enriched by the union of their creativity after decades at Vogue with almost every issue including an image from him it would be normal to expect his inspiration and quality of work to dwindle but under the urging of Alexander libran pen began to work with fashion editor Phyllis posnik this pairing brought out a boldness in Penn's work that made the reader stop in their tracks when flipping through the magazine in the 20 years I worked with him we did over 400 pictures together when we were preparing to do a sitting never a shoot he never called it a shoot I went to his Studio to describe the idea that we were hoping that he would do and he would sit across the table for me and often draw exactly what he wanted to do I had to be very careful because it was like walking through a Minefield trying to get him to do a picture and one wrong word and he would lose interest and not do it I learned with him to talk in a visual language that could Inspire him or hopefully Inspire him one sitting that took heavy convincing was in 1995 when Phyllis pusnik proposed to pen the idea of going to Paris to shoot the uch collections like he did for the first time some 45 years earlier he agreed to take the assignment only if he could shoot in a same Studio as he did before in 1950 that studio unfortunately no longer existed but they found a comparable replace placement in a sculptor Studio near onal pen also resisted using the model Shalom harlo but once faced with her beauty in person he was enthralled by her Poise this story also featured the Contemporary players in the world of OT the millonary Philip Tracy cor Mr Pearl fashion designers Carl leld johanni Versace and John gallano who had just been appointed the creative director of Jon galano has since remarked on the impact of that first experience working with pen and that if he is really struggling with a garment in the M Marella at he imagines that he must have it finished in time to be photographed by pen Phyllis posnik would go on to publish two books from her work at Vogue extreme Beauty and Stoppers which feature pen work on the covers and throughout this was a picture that we did it goes back to his gadras and we did it for an article about clothes that had sunscreen in them and the clothes were so ugly that it looked like that old expression that she was wearing a sack so we got a couple of burlap sacks and there you are this was for stopping aging and we had this head Frozen um we had it made up and then the ice man came and it took a week to build up the ice to to cover her face uh this picture was built around the mask um I had seen it and makeup as Peter Phillips had designed it and I thought pen might be interested and I was trying to talk him into doing a picture so I brought it to the studio and he looked at it and he liked it and he said that he wanted to photograph her in an old neglige I brought a rack of clothes to the studio it must have been 25 or 30 neges blouses anything that looked like a Nee and um he liked one and that was it we made her face very pale so that her it would show through the mask and darkened her lips so that they would be defined and at the last minute we sprayed her hair white to separate it from the background this was an accident it was a picture we did for uh new mascaras and new brushes because apparently it's a multi-million dollar business and we had struggled all afternoon to get a picture that pen was happy with and it was okay her eye was closed the whole day and when we finished shooting Penn said we're all through now and she opened her eye and that's what we got he did something like two or three frames and we were finished this was a beauty picture from um a shoot we were doing of fashion tribes and one of the things that is interesting about the models that we use the models even when their faces are covered we use um top models because they give the picture character I mean even though she's completely covered you can see um you can see her attitude by her hand or even if her head is tilted a little bit when we did this picture Penn looked at the film he would shoot in the morning we'd stop for lunch and he'd send the film out to be developed and then review it and see if he wanted to shoot again the film came back and he said and's never going to run this she did this was a portrait of Kate Blanchette that we did for her film Elizabeth I and Penn hated to photograph actresses or actors because he felt they were acting for the camera and um he liked to get beyond the surface and Beyond the facade and he usually felt he wasn't successful with actors but in costume it was something different so I brought I asked him about doing cap lunchette and he was interested and I went to the studio and met with him and showed him pictures of the costumes which I thought he would love because they were textured they were big they were long they were very opulent and it's it's usually the thing he love and he looked at them for a minute and he said um I'd love to photograph Kate but the costumes just aren't good enough so not want to be stopped we asked Nicola gasier then at Balenciaga to make a costume for Kate and this is what he made just before he was finished making it I got a call asking if I thought pen would mind if he used doilies for the rough because he couldn't find any fabric that he felt was right for the picture and um I asked I said sure you know and I asked pen and so these are paper does like you put under a cake now this picture was for an article on um coconut products and or coconut in beauty products and we got the little orangutang on it's on my left yeah on the left and the Chimp on the right and we sat them down the orangan Tang was a baby and we gave the coconut to the chimp and he instantly threw it on the floor so we gave him another one and he threw it on the floor and this went on for all morning and Penn finally got to the point he was so focused he started to talk to them like they were children and like they were subjects and um in the end he managed to get the the chimp to hold the coconut long enough pen and posnik would work together up until his death in 2009 looking back at the Decades of work from Irving pen you can find an artist whose individual voice and vision made him a singular presence in the history of photography his work was intelligent visually arresting leaving behind a legacy to make Irving pen Immortal in the visual arts