Irving Penn (1917–2009) is considered one of the leading photographers of the 20th century. His work spans fashion, portraiture and still life, characterised by carefully constructed compositions, controlled lighting and a restrained visual style.

Penn studied design with Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from 1934 to 1938. After spending a year painting in Mexico, he returned to New York and joined Vogue in 1943, working under art director Alexander Liberman. He went on to photograph for Vogue and commercial clients in the United States and internationally for almost seven decades, producing 165 covers for the magazine.

Although best known for his fashion photography, Penn worked across a wide range of subjects. His portraits, still lifes and photographs demonstrate the same approach to composition, with subjects isolated against simple backgrounds and photographed with close attention to form, texture and light.

Penn was also an important printmaker. From 1964, he developed and refined a platinum-palladium printing process, adapting the 19th-century technique using contemporary materials. The process allowed him to achieve a particularly broad range of tones and fine detail.

The exhibition “Penn & Fashion” at the Maison européenne de la photographie, in Paris, and presented to coincide with Paris Fashion Week, with works lent by collector Nicola Erni, covers more than six decades of his career. It brings together photographs ranging from the Dior dresses worn by Lisa Fonssagrives in the 1950s to his collaborations with Issey Miyake in the 1990s, alongside works in black and white and colour and a range of photographic printing techniques. The exhibition is on view until 17 January 2027.

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