Irving Penn was born on June 16, 1917 in Plainfield, New Jersey. He was the brother of the successful motion-picture director Arthur Penn. Irving originally wanted to become a painter, photography never crossed his mind in his younger days. After he finished high school Penn went to four-year course at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, where he became a scholar of Alexey Brodovitch and was taught advertising design.When Penn graduated in 1938, his first job was an art director of the Junior League magazine. Later he worked for Saks fifth Avenue department store. At age 25, he quite this job and spent a year in Mexico painting, where he discovered that he no longer wanted to pursue in this field.
With his return to New York City he was noticed by Alexander Liberman, an art director of Vogue magazine and hired Penn as his assistant. Initially to construct ideas for the magazine’s cover illustrations. Later, Penn began photographing for the covers and editorial illustrations for inside of the magazine. As Penn worked closely with Liberman, he gained a vast technique of fashion photography. This changed and identified what feminine chic and glamour should be. He favored working in a studio then less-controlled conditions. Along with Penn’s fashion and portrait photography, he also created multiple still-life composition’s and metallic prints for Vogue.
In 1950 Penn married fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives, who became a model for a good deal of his work. They in time had one son together, Tom. Penn began his own profitable photography studio in 1953, where he continued his career in advertising and fashion photography.
