Fashion

Photographer Irving Penn Dies

Remembered for his elegant minimalism.

Irving Penn, the fashion photographer famous worldwide for his elegant and minimalist pictures, died Wednesday morning at his home in Manhattan. The 92-year-old had worked for Vogue since 1943, and since then his pictures have been exhibited in museums and hunted by collectors. Penn photographed supermodels and Hell's Angels with the same cool stillness, and his images sometimes subverted standards of beauty and perfection, as in his series of color essays of flowers just past their prime, which was published in seven consecutive Christmas issues of Vogue. Penn was married to model Lisa Fonssagrives for 42 years, until her death in 1992, and Fonssagrives was featured in some of her husband's most famous work, such as Rochas 'Mermaid Dress,' Paris and Woman With Roses, Paris, from 1950, the year they wed.