Penn & Fashion

Maison Européenne de la Photographie

From September 30, 2026 to January 17, 2027, the MEP presents the exhibition PENN & FASHION. It pays tribute to Irving Penn, one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. The author of a body of work always ahead of its time, Irving Penn profoundly shaped the history of fashion photography through his collaboration of more than sixty years with Vogue magazine. His refined aesthetic, as well as his exceptional mastery of composition, influenced generations of photographers. The exhibition unfolds in a chronological journey, following Irving Penn's career from 1947 to 2008. It begins in the 1950s, with the presentation of his legendary photographs of the Parisian haute couture collections such as Dior and Balenciaga, magnified by the greatest models of the era such as Lisa Fonssagrives and Jean Patchett. In the 1970s, the creations of Ungaro and Courrèges and the extravagant outfits worn by Marisa Berenson or Lauren Hutton caught the photographer's attention, followed, the next decade, by the creations of Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. The exhibition also presents Irving Penn's unprecedented collaboration with the Japanese designer Issey Miyake, whose sculptural garments engage in perfect dialogue with his refined photographic style. Over his last three decades of creation, Penn maintained a consistent thread: an emphasis on silhouettes, volumes and textures. He photographed in color the sumptuous dresses designed by John Galliano or the opulent models of Christian Lacroix as well as Chanel's spectacular feather headdresses, in breathtaking images. Finally, his striking images for the beauty pages of Vogue magazine in the 1990s and 2000s testify to the creativity and modernity of an artist part of whose work has yet to be discovered. Always faithful to a demanding artistic vision, whatever the context of the commission, Penn helped bring art, fashion and commerce closer together with unprecedented mastery. His work is characterized by an aesthetic of elegant simplicity. Each image is the result of a long process of reflection leading to timeless compositions transposed into sophisticated printing techniques, which have often become icons in the history of photography. The exhibition is largely conceived from the collection of the MEP and that of Nicola Erni. Assembled over the past twenty-five years, the latter is today one of the largest and most remarkable collections devoted to fashion photography, covering the period from the 1930s to the present day. The exhibition also benefits from numerous exceptional loans from The Irving Penn Foundation and The Miyake Issey Foundation.

Source: Paris Open Data ↗