Irving Penn at the Met Museum
The ‘Centennial’ exhibition celebrates the extraordinary creativity and genius aesthetic of American photographer
Irving Penn, Mouth (for L'Oreal), New York 1986
The prophet of ‘less is more,’ the hero of iconic minimalism, the man who invented a new concept of marketing communication in the Sixties — by shooting a still-life photography campaign using product bottles and makeup cases for the renowned dermo-cosmetic brand Clinique — that is still all the rage today, even on Instagram. Until July 30, the extraordinary creativity and genius aesthetic of Irving Penn are the protagonists of the Centennial exhibition, at New York’s Met Museum. Over 200 photographs are on display: from the fashion shoots dedicated to his wife, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, and delicate still life, all the way to photos taken during his travels to Peru and New Guinea and portraits of personalities he was fond of, including Picasso, Ingmar Bergman and Issey Miyake.
Irving Penn,
Naomi Sims
in Scarf, New York, ca. 1969.
*As originally featured in the last issue of the VO+ USA special edition - Words Matteo Guizzardi