Sunday, October 18, 2009

End of an Era

Picture 3

The death of Irving Penn marks the end of the era of seminal midcentury fashion photographers, according to a fantastic Los Angeles Times story by Emili Vesilind in today's Image section.

pen4

Emili writes:  "Penn, along with Richard Avedon, who died in 2004, practically invented modern fashion photography -- a place where art meets commerce -- in the mid-20th century."

Picture 2

The influence of both photographers -- and a group of mavericks who followed -- figures prominently on the pages of fashion magazines and books to this day.
{More details here in Emili's story}

{Also, an LAT slideshow of Penn photos here}

I hope you're having a lovely Sunday.  I'm reading the Sunday papers and sipping chai tea. Very relaxing.

Next, I have to do the laundry. Sigh. Another laundry crisis...
xo


(Photo credits: top and bottom photos by Avedon, middle photo by Penn.)

8 comments:

Caroline said...

Perfect capture of the detail on that sleeve in the middle photo, while still evoking the glamour of such a dramatic piece. I think too often now fashion photography becomes more about the model and/or the setting than the clothing itself. I've seen many editorials in which you can barely make out any detail of the garments at all.

Anonymous said...

Wow. We keep losing the best. Their work looks fonomonal. I like this post! :)

AVY said...

Great pictures, there is so much life in them.

vanessa joie said...

Gorgeous post. I'm up to my eyeballs in laundry.

LenoreNeverM♡re said...

Art & commerce is hard to mingle most of the times...but when they do, it's simply gloriousss...even magical! Have a fabulous week Tina darling! xo*

NodtoMod Vintage said...

the pictures are classic beautiful. i hope you had a great sunday...mine was a laundry filled day as well!

TheBeautyFile said...

They're both incredible. I visited the ICP in NY a few months ago for the Avedon exhibit. I'm so smitten by his work....looking at it makes me feel like I'm taking a "History of Modern Couture" class...the glamour, oh the glamour!

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