Irving Penn (make-up blog #7)

The recently deceased Irving Penn is another American photographer who is well known for his portraiture and fashion photography. During his early career, he began by studying under Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art, were he graduated in 1938. He began with drawing and painting, and had much of his work published in magazines such as Harpers Bazaar. However, he began to establish himself more as a glamour photographer shortly after World War II. After making a name for himself he became one of the main fashion photographers for Vogue magazine. One of his trademarks was to posesubjects against simple grey or white backdrops, creating a trend of simplicity that was use and impersonated by many photographers after him. Another trademark of his was to construct upward angled backdrops that would form acute corners behind his subjects. He was also later known for his wide variety of subjects and photographs that were somewhat ahead of his time, for example a series of posed nudes whose physical shapes ranged from thin to plump.