Irving Penn (Plainfield, New Jersey, June 16, 1917 - New York, New York, October 7, 20091) was a photographer American fashion and portraiture.

He studied design at the Philadelphia Museum's School of Industrial Arts, graduating in 1938. His teacher was photographer Alexey Brodovitch, who would later be his colleague at the magazine Harper's Bazaar. Then he traveled to Mexico, where he devoted himself to painting for a year.

Her drawings were published in Harper's Bazaar. His first job at Vogue magazine was as an assistant to artist Alexander Liberman. In 1943, he began working as a cover designer.

After World War II, Penn became famous for his elegant and glamorous portraits of women published in Vogue. In his photographs, the subject was often posed against a simple white or gray background, using simplicity more effectively than other photographers of the time.

In 1950, he married model Lisa Fonssagrives, with whom he had a son named Tom. Three years later, he founded his photography studio. He was widowed in 1992, when Fonssagrives was 80 years old.

He received the Hasselblad prize in 1985, and two years later he was awarded the Culture Prize of the German Association of Photography.

He has published several books, including The astronomers plan a voyage to Earth (1999) and Photographs of Dahomey (2004), as well as exhibits of his work.

She passed away on October 7, 2009 at her home in Manhattan at the age of 92.

(Source Wikipedia)

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