Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty Irving Penn

In a career that spanned eight decades, iconic American photographer Irving Penn (1917–2009) created an enormous body of work. In this retrospective the full range of his accomplishment is seen in more than 140 photographs including early social realist images, glamorous fashion photographs, insightful portraits, still lifes, nudes, and his late work with found objects.
A master at lighting and composition, Penn’s works are characterized by technical virtuosity combined with a facility for blurring the boundaries between the world of fine art and commercial photography. Through Penn’s lens, a crushed paper cup received the same meticulous examination as an elegant model and a London chimney sweep was photographed with the same attention as the intelligentsia of the day.