Extraordinary Black And White Portraits Of Celebrities Taken By Irving Penn

Isabella Rossellini

Best known for his fashion photography, Penn’s repertoire also includes portraits of creative greats; ethnographic photographs from around the world; Modernist still lifes of food, bones, bottles, metal, and found objects; and photographic travel essays.

More info: Irving Penn (h/t: vintag.es)

Ingmar Bergman

Irving Penn was among the first photographers to pose subjects against a simple grey or white backdrop and he effectively used this simplicity. Expanding his austere studio surroundings, Penn constructed a set of upright angled backdrops, to form a stark, acute corner. Penn’s manipulation of formal design elements such as light and shadow, and his ability to capture a significant gesture, expression, or mood, ultimately reveal something intriguing about his subjects.

Rudolf Nureyev

John Updike

Yves Saint Laurent

Truman Capote

Francis Bacon

Jasper Johns

Alberto Giacometti

Audrey Hepburn

Ingmar Bergman

Richard Burton

Miles Davis

Joan Didion

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Jean Cocteau

Marc Jacobs

Leontyne Price

Martin Scorsese

Dora Maar

Tom Stoppard

Louis Jouvet

Helmut Newton

Al Pacino

Pablo Picasso

Louise Bourgeois

Carson McCullers

Isamu Noguchi

Nicole Kidman

Robin Williams