“A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart, and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in one word, effective.” – Irving Penn.

Irving Penn was likely the most important fashion photographer of the 20th century. He studied under Alexey Brodovitch, a Russian-born photographer famous for art direction of Harper’s Bazaar. It was in this magazine where Mr. Penn’s career in fashion photography started. Before founding his own studio in 1953, he worked for Vogue magazine, where some of his most influential works came to be. It was not unusual to see new trends in the fashion world of the time, caused directly by Mr. Penn’s photographic vision of it. He was essentially a portraitist, but his strong and very directed artistic inclination enabled him to effectively change what portraiture is. He was the first photographer to use a bland (grey of white) backdrop. This simplification of the background made his subjects be more “visible” – the most basic concept of portraiture Mr. Penn  used to greatly amplify the “effectiveness” of his photos. He was very attentive to details, never letting them escape his frame, and has always looked for the person behind the facade – the true person, always more striking or beautiful than the one purposefully presented.