The Skinny on Irving Penn.

Legendary photographer Irving Penn had a 66-year-long career with Vogue magazine. He had far-ranging subjects: fashion, celebrities, nudes, still lifes, everyday people, counterculture... Check out his work at the current de Young Museum exhibit.

Pablo Picasso, Cannes, 1957

Penn created the same neutral backdrop to shoot everyday workers as he did celebrities.

Sewer cleaner, New York City, 1951

Yoyo Ma at nine-years-old in 1964

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, New York, 1993

Penn did a long series on cigarette butts, something about a study of decay... (He created photographs for cigarette ads, and later his heavy smoking beloved mentor died of cancer.)

SF Counterculture, Hells Angels, 1967

While on a fashion shoot in Peru, Penn headed up into the Andes to photograph locals.