Irving Penn

Irving Penn’s photography was thought of being revolutionary in its day, with fresh ideas to bring to the world of fashion photography. He was one of the top in his field and took photographs for top fashion magazines, such as Vogue Magazine, and then founding his own studio in 1953. A lot of the work he did in his time went unappreciated until more modern times, showing how ahead of the photographic world he really was.


I think this is an extremely good fashion photograph as it shows the subjects dress in full, with the hat and dress being the entire focus of it. This is important in fashion photography as in this field the subject is never the model themselves, but the clothes they are wearing. You can also see that in this photograph the lighting is focused, not on the face of the model, but her dress, and hat bringing them forward making them the first things you notice about it. The way she is posed is also important in the photograph as the way she is composed shows the audience intended for the outfit. You can see she is posed quite elegantly showing that maybe the outfit is purely for modelling purposes, or for a more upper class society. As a fashion photograph I think this works extremely well as it highlights the important parts of the dress, such as the texture and fabric, also modelling it for its intended audience.


This photograph isn’t so much an example of Penn’s fashion photography, but more an example of his photographic expertise and ability to think ahead of the game with a revolutionary style. Just by using two walls converging in a corner, Penn turned what could have been an ordinary studio photo shoot into something new that hadn’t been done before. I think this new way of thinking and not adhering to the norm would be a brilliant way to show off and express my clients needs in the brief they have given me with their designs.