Irving Penn’s deep understanding of humanity is reflected in his work. He not only captured couture but also cultural cliches with equal panache. Over the course of his nearly 70-year career, Irving Penn (1917- 2009) mastered a pared-down aesthetic of studio photography that is distinguished for its meticulous attention to composition, nuance, detail, and printmaking.

Picasso to Truman Capote, Penn captured everybody in his camera. World’s first supermodel, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, was his muse too. She married Penn in 1950.

‘Irving Penn: Centennial’ at Metropolitan Museum of Art is an exhibition which celebrates Penn’s work and his contribution to fashion and photography. The showcased portraits chart his path through the demands of fashion, the requirements of his artistic inner voice in a commercial world, the moral condition of the American conscience during the Vietnam War era, the growth of photography as a fine art in the 1970s and 1980s, and personal intimations of mortality.

Highlights of the exhibition include newly unearthed footage of the photographer at work in his tent in Morocco; issues of Vogue magazine illustrating the original use of the photographs, and in some cases, to demonstrate the difference between those brilliantly colored, journalistic presentations and Penn’s later reconsidered reuse of the imagery; and several of Penn’s drawings shown near similar still life photographs.

The exhibition opened on April 24th, 2017 and runs through July 30th, 2017.