Ally Blair
INSPIRED BY A MASTER
IRVING PENN
Born: June 16, 1917 (Plainfield, NJ)
Died: October 7, 2009 (New York City, NY)
Known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes.
Education: Attended the Philedelphia Musuem School of Industrial Art (now called the University of Art) where he studied drawing, painting, graphics, and industrial arts. (From 1934 to 1938)
While a student, Brodovitch at Harper's Bazaar which published several of Penn's drawings.
After two years Penn then starting taking ametuer photograpghs as an art director at Saks Fifth Avenue in 1940. He stayed at Saks for a year until he decided to travel to Mexico and across the US to take photographs.
After returning back in New York, Penn got offered a job in the Vogue magazine Art Department. His first photograpghic cover in Vogue appeared October 1943.
Penn met his wife, Lisa Fonssagrives, in 1947. Three years later they got married and had their first child in 1952.
Penn discovered photography when Alexander Liberman offered him a job at Vogue. Penn worked on layout for the magazine until Alexander suggested that he tried photography. He then began shooting for Vogue.
Penn was among the few photographers to have subjects pose agaisnt a grey or white backdrop.
Irving Penn was one of the most important and influential photographers of the 20th century. His career lasted 70 years. Within those seventy years, Penn worked on professional and artistic projects across multiple genres. He printed both black and white and color photography and published more than nine books of his photographs and two of his drawings during his lifetime.
"A good photograpgh is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart, and leaves the viwer a changed person for having seen it; it is in one word, effective." -Irving Penn
Penn also created a series of posed nudes called Earthly Bodies, uplifting the feamle form in it's many shapes and sizes.
His photographs continue to be exhibited in musuems and educational institutions across the country and around the world and has been the inspiration for students looking for a photography degree.
My photo of Olivia is based off of the photograpgh of the model with short blonde hair. However, I changed it a little to make the photo more natural looking and less forced and posed. I also like how my photo is less professional. Olivia is geninuinly happy and smiling, I like that because the model has a seriously look on her face looking directly at the camera.
