Irving Penn: Portraits

Drawn from a career spanning seven decades, Irving Penn Portraits presents thirty photographs of renowned personalities by one of the most distinguished photographers of the 20th century. With an essay by curator Magdalene Keaney, Irving Penn Portraits is the first book to focus exclusively on Penn’s portraiture and his contributions to the genre. From Penn’s early work of the 1940s to recent images made in 21st century, Irving Penn Portraits honors a selection of photographs with reproductions of superb quality. Among those featured are Giorgio de Chirico, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Duke Ellington, Marlene Dietrich, Woody Allen, Rudolf Nureyev, Helmut Newton and Jasper Johns.

Drawn from a career spanning seven decades, Irving Penn Portraits presents thirty photographs of renowned personalities by one of the most distinguished photographers of the 20th century. With an essay by curator Magdalene Keaney, Irving Penn Portraits is the first book to focus exclusively on Penn’s portraiture and his contributions to the genre. From Penn’s early work of the 1940s to recent images made in 21st century, Irving Penn Portraits honors a selection of photographs with reproductions of superb quality. Among those featured are Giorgio de Chirico, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Duke Ellington, Marlene Dietrich, Woody Allen, Rudolf Nureyev, Helmut Newton and Jasper Johns.

Irving Penn was born in 1917, in Plainfield, New Jersey. In a career of more than sixty years, he has created an extensive and influential body of photographs in portraiture, fashion and still life. His work resides in the permanent collections of major museums internationally and has been published in over twenty-five monographs and exhibited throughout the world. Magdalene Keaney is Associate Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Sandy Nairne is Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London.