Irving Penn by Matt Howard

One artist that I’ve been looking into lately, because of his classic vogue photography is Irving Penn. I’m really interested on this very basic style of high fashion photography. Penn was on of the first photographers to shoot is models in front of plain, blank, neutral backgrounds. It seems so simple now days because we see it everyday. He introduced this new style in the 1940s and it is still used today. In 1958, Popular Photography named him as one of the World’s Ten Greatest Photographers. 

            Beyond vogue Penn did a lot of more abstract photography that truly is beautiful. He has created a lot of close ups and a lot of cropped images that are composed in interesting ways that really make you think. Many of his photos are still pretty shocking by today’s standards. There is also a lot of diversity in his work. He shoots everything from tribal men, to movie stars like Audrey Hepburn. He’s done still lives and even portraits of his wife, also photos of bugs and portraits of high fashion Vogue models. I would love to incorporate this into my own photos. I'm shooting a lot of portraits with long elegant dressings, and every edgy fashion choices. I may try using some of Penn's classic plain neutral backdrops. His work is very impressive. Have a look.