Tulip, New York, 1967 Source: Masters of Fine Art Photography

“Photographing a cake can be art,” Irving Penn

Irving Penn, whose photographs revealed a taste for stark simplicity whether he was shooting celebrity portraits, fashion, still life or remote places of the world, died Wednesday at his Manhattan home. He was 92.

Penn, who constantly explored the photographic medium and its boundaries, typically preferred to isolate his subjects — from fashion models to Aborigine tribesmen — from their natural settings to photograph them in a studio against a stark background. He believed the studio could most closely capture their true natures.
Source: AP

Gisele Bundchen auctioned off at Christie’s New York in 2008.

Photo Credit: Daily Mail

Irving Penn began working at Vogue in 1943 in the art department.

Showing a talent for unorthodox layout, he was asked to photograph a Vogue cover shot – the result was a still life of a brown leather bag, a beige scarf, gloves, oranges and lemons arranged in a pyramid shape.

He was among the first photographers to pose subjects against a simple grey or white backdrop and used this simplicity more effectively than other photographers. His austere style of photographing models and fashion accessories against clean backdrops was in contrast to the prevailing style of using busy settings and props.

Posing his subjects within this tight, unorthodox space, Penn brought an unprecedented sense of drama to his portraits, driving the viewer’s focus onto the person and their expression.

Portraiture from the 1950s showed not only famous actors, musicians and politicians but also plumbers, salesmen and cleaners in New York City, Paris and London.

“The severe portrait that is not the greatest joy in the world to the subject may be enormously interesting to the reader,” he said in a 1991 interview in The New York Times.

Source: BBC News, Wikipedia

Penn’s legacy and contribution to the world of art and photography will not be forgotten, but will be sorely missed.