Irving Penn

[Bob Salomon]

Irving Penn, Fashion Photographer, Is Dead at 92

[George E. Sheils]

Sad news indeed Bob.

Iconic photographer, if ever there was one.

May he RIP.

[Carlin]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/arts/design/08penn.html?hp

[David Karp]

RIP. There is a show of his work at the Getty in LA: www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/penn/

[Gem Singer]

Irving Penn has gone to join Richard Avedon for a photo shoot in the great beyond.

Both are missed by those they left behind.

R.I.P.

[Bill_1856]

Damn!

[csant]

R.i.p.

[Emil Schildt]

very sad news.

the modern dinosaurs are becoming extinct......

92? too early, if you ask me..

[PViapiano]

He was my favorite. I am sad beyond words tonight...

Exactly one week ago today I was at the Getty looking at 252 wonderful prints in his Small Trades project.

[Kerik Kouklis]

A sad day, indeed...

[bsimison]

Wow. I just picked up a copy of his "Platinum Prints" book last week and have loved looking through it. We've lost a great talent.

[WalterE54]

Loved his "In the corner portraits" & the 12X20 Platinum work. Also, I remember him being in a "History of Photography" movie from the 1970's...I thought, "wow, Irving Penn" as I watched it! He was very soft-spoken & passionate as I recall.....

[CP Goerz]

Remember the Clinique ads? Who would have thought that a bar of soap could be interesting! The guy was a true master.

[PViapiano]

Brett, where did you find a copy of that book? It's out of print...

Did you get a decent price or was it over $100?

[William McEwen]

Penn was awesome.

I wish I could afford "Moments Preserved." It's his best book, and it contains the perfect ratio of text to pictures. It was in our college library, and I had it signed out during most of my time at CMU!

There is a lesson when one looks at Penn's work. For his portraits, he used an 8x10 view camera from 1947 to about 1949. Then he switched to medium format. The smooth tonality in the view camera pictures is so much better than the medium format.

I wrote to him in 1998 and asked why he switched. He wrote back and said it was just the natural evolution of the medium. Kind of an interesting declaration from someone who made platinum prints!

Let me voice my agreement that Penn's ads for Clinique were something special. For a long time I've hoped for a book of these photos.

[PViapiano]

I haven't seen Moments, but I own Passages, which is considered one of the finest photographic books regarding printing of the book itself among people who are particular about those things. It was guided by Richard Benson, Thom Palmer did the seps, and Franklin Graphics did the printing, very top notch all the way. The B&W photographs were made in eleven impressions!

I'm happy to report that Penn's new book, just released to coincide with the Getty's Small Trades exhibition (252 luscious prints in silver and pt/pd) also has Thom Palmer and this time Meridian (another great printing outfit) on board.

[William McEwen]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703746604574461240418087868.html

A good article about Penn in today's Wall Street Journal.

[Rick Moore]

There was a short piece on Penn on "Sunday Morning" on CBS today.

The ranks of the great photographers that had an influence on my generation have thinned considerably in the last few years.