DAY 147

FASHION & BEAUTY

Influential Fashion Photographers—Past

RICHARD AVEDON (1923–2004) AND IRVING PENN (1917–2009)

“If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up.”—Richard Avedon

Avedon began his career in advertising and quickly moved to a 50-year reign as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar’s fashion and celebrity portrait photographer. His minimalistic style of brightly lighted subjects in studio, squarely facing the camera on white backgrounds, defines his early work. His contribution to the fashion industry came with his ability to put a subject at ease and evoke emotions that seemed candid and truthful. His subjects were photographed laughing and in the moment. He produced black and white images, revealing aspects of his subject’s character and personality that were not typically captured.

“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 a word, effective.”—Irving Penn

Irving Penn began his schooling as a painter; at the age of 26, he began designing photographic covers for Vogue. Penn’s work was defined by images with compositional clarity and exhaustingly complex arrangements of groups of figures. He also experimented in the dark room, moving away from traditional silver printing, and using platinum, which produces dense, velvety saturation, with skin tones that are dark and lush. His body of work was embraced by the fashion and fine art world. —MR