Brodovitch, impressed with Penn’s eye for graphics, hired Penn as an unpaid assistant.
via NYTimes.com.
Irving Penn – He Got Beneath the Surface of People — and Things
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penn is pretty much the greatest ever
Great article on Penn. It reminds me of the books, articles and Bio’s I have read on Ansel Adams and Eddie Adams. I loved how Penn would spend time with the people he was going to shoot. It was his voice that was telling the story with each subject and it wasn’t influded by those that worked for him. Amazing Artist.
Quite a telling piece with quotes from in front of Mr Penn’s lens.
For me Irving Penn is representative of an ethos which placed the photograph and the subject above the act of ‘being a photographer’.
And proof, yet again, that where one starts is not the thing, but the destination and the journey are the gits of the matter. Bravo to all whose sense of vocation led them to work as unpaid assistants. I know I did, and I’m sure that if honesty prevails, so did many others.