The American photographer Irving Penn, who has died aged 92, transformed the look of fashion photography and portraiture in the 1950s, and went on to produce definitive images of a wide range of subjects from Pablo Picasso to South American street children to the model Gisele Bündchen.
Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, he embarked at the age of 18 on a four-year course at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, where the famed Harper's Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch taught advertising design. In the summers, Penn worked for the magazine as an office boy and as an apprentice artist engaged in sketching shoes. Later, he became art director at Saks Fifth Avenue. What he really wanted to do, however, was paint.
In 1942, he left for Mexico where he spent 12 months working on his paintings. Dissatisfied with the results, realising that he would never be more than a mediocre artist, he returned to Manhattan. A practical man, he washed his linen canvases clean of all traces of paint and put them to use as tablecloths in the apartment that he later shared with his wife and frequent model, Lisa Fonssagrives.
He settled back in New York, working for Alexander Liberman, the art director at Vogue magazine, who instructed his new assistant to suggest covers for the magazine. When Penn failed to persuade the staff photographers to execute his ideas, Liberman asked him to take the pictures himself. Using a borrowed camera and drawing on his artistic experience, Penn arranged a still life consisting of a big brown leather bag, beige scarf and gloves, lemons, oranges and a huge topaz. It was used as the cover image for Vogue's October 1943 issue and launched his career. Subsequently, he published hundreds of photographs in the magazine and was so respected that his standard uniform of trainers and jeans, in blatant contravention of the unspoken dress code upheld at the office, went unremarked.
He would literally squeeze his models into the corner, photographing them against blank, white backgrounds with no props to distract the eye from the clothes. His images, stark and stylised, often verging on the abstract, frequently saturated with brilliant colour, became instantly recognisable. His artful creation of still lives - heaped fruits garnished with precious jewels, amassed cigarette butts, detritus gathered from the streets of Manhattan - belied his experience as a painter. Often he would sketch the photograph he intended to take before preparing his camera.
His subjects were diverse. In one week in 1950 he photographed the Swiss sculptor Giacometti, the French fashion collections and an assortment of anonymous tradesmen. Asked in a New York Times interview in 1991 whether he felt any obligation to make the subjects of his portrait shots appear either kind or attractive, he replied: "Absolutely no."
When he turned his forensic eye away from couture dresses to native tribes people in Africa and New Guinea the results were striking, though some critics accused Penn of blatant exploitation. He travelled weighed down with equipment, in effect transporting his studio with him.
Back in Manhattan, his official studio was known as "the hospital". It was quiet, painted white throughout, uncluttered and essentially unadorned. It was a fitting environment for the unpretentious Penn, who was nothing if not a pragmatist. "I am a professional photographer because it is the best way I know to earn the money I require to take care of my wife and children," he said in 1958 when named as one of the world's top 10 photographers by Popular Photography magazine.
Irving Penn was born on June 16, 1917, and died on October 7. His wife predeceased him. He is survived by his son and a stepdaughter.
* The National
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Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
SNAPSHOT
While Huawei did launch the first smartphone with a 50MP image sensor in its P40 series in 2020, Oppo in 2014 introduced the Find 7, which was capable of taking 50MP images: this was done using a combination of a 13MP sensor and software that resulted in shots seemingly taken from a 50MP camera.
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Day 5, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day When Dilruwan Perera dismissed Yasir Shah to end Pakistan’s limp resistance, the Sri Lankans charged around the field with the fevered delirium of a side not used to winning. Trouble was, they had not. The delivery was deemed a no ball. Sri Lanka had a nervy wait, but it was merely a stay of execution for the beleaguered hosts.
Stat of the day – 5 Pakistan have lost all 10 wickets on the fifth day of a Test five times since the start of 2016. It is an alarming departure for a side who had apparently erased regular collapses from their resume. “The only thing I can say, it’s not a mitigating excuse at all, but that’s a young batting line up, obviously trying to find their way,” said Mickey Arthur, Pakistan’s coach.
The verdict Test matches in the UAE are known for speeding up on the last two days, but this was extreme. The first two innings of this Test took 11 sessions to complete. The remaining two were done in less than four. The nature of Pakistan’s capitulation at the end showed just how difficult the transition is going to be in the post Misbah-ul-Haq era.
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Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Empty Words
By Mario Levrero
(Coffee House Press)
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
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TV (UAE time);
OSN Sports: from 10am
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
The years Ramadan fell in May
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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MATCH INFO
Manchester United v Brighton, Sunday, 6pm UAE
INDIA V SOUTH AFRICA
First Test: October 2-6, at Visakhapatnam
Second Test: October 10-14, at Maharashtra
Third Test: October 19-23, at Ranchi
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
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