How Irving Penn changed the world of fashion

Irving Penn's, one of fashion's greatest photographers, death yesterday was announced. Whilst death brings sadness, he was 92 and had lived a rich life. 

One of the wonderful things about obituaries is that you can learn new things about individuals that you had previously not known. For me what hit a chord was how his unorthodox approach to art and photography gained him such a reputation. This extract below is shamelessly ripped from the Sydney Morning Herald:

Penn believed his success depended on keeping the reader - rather than the model - in mind.

 "Many photographers feel their client is the subject," he explained in a 1991 interview in The New York Times.

"My client is a woman in Kansas who reads Vogue.

"I'm trying to intrigue, stimulate, feed her."

"The severe portrait that is not the greatest joy in the world to the subject may be enormously interesting to the reader."

It seems to me that a lot of brands are starting to catch onto that notion, but it takes that well-spoken of shift for them to actively embrace it. And will this shift pay dividends? Well it would seem to have for Penn, selling a single photo last year for US$529,000. Not bad for what some may claim took 1/60 of a second of work.