Title: Irving Penn Photographic Collection, 1944-1945
Arrangement
This collection is arranged by physical medium into two series, and the corresponding subseries are arranged topically and alphabetically into folders as follows: Series 1: Photographs, 1944-1945; Subseries 1A: Personnel; Subseries 1B: British Personnel; Subseries 1C: Italy; Subseries 1D: India-Burma; Series 2: Negatives, 1944-1945; Subseries 2A: Personnel; Subseries 2B: British Personnel; Subseries 2C: Italy; Subseries 2D: India-Burma. The series and subseries correspond to the series and subseries names in RG2/002, the World War II Photographic Collection of the American Field Service where the Penn photographic prints and negatives were originally housed.
If there is a photograph and negative of the same image available, it is stored in a folder with the same title in the corresponding subseries (for example, the negatives for the photographs in the folder “Trip to port of embarkation from Italy to India, boxcar interiors” in Subseries 1C: Italy would be in the “Trip to port of embarkation from Italy to India, boxcar interior” folder in Subseries 2C: Italy.) If the original World War II manila envelope that originally housed the photographic print or negative was available, it was included in the new folder.
Please see the individual series descriptions for additional information.
Abstract
Irving Penn was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer who served as an ambulance driver and staff photographer with the American Field Service (AFS) during World War II. The Irving Penn Photographic Collection consists of photographic prints and negatives captured by Penn between 1944 and 1945 during his time stationed with AFS units CM 92 and IB 59-T in Italy and India-Burma.
Administrative/Biographical History
Irving Penn was born on June 16, 1917, in Plainfield, NJ, to Sonia Greenburg and Harry W. Penn. Penn attended Olney High School in Philadelphia and studied design under Alexey Brodovitch, the art director of Harper’s Bazaar, at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art from 1934 to 1938. Originally trained as a painter, Penn began his career as a graphic artist, publishing drawings in Harper’s Bazaar, working as director of advertising design for Saks Fifth Avenue, and traveling to Mexico to paint before becoming the assistant art director for Vogue in 1943.
Penn took a leave of absence from Vogue in August 1944 to volunteer as an ambulance driver for the American Field Service (AFS) during World War II. He was sent overseas with CM 92 in October 1944 and arrived in Naples, Italy, on November 6, 1944. Upon arrival Penn was attached to the 485 Ambulance Company (Coy) and served as a driver and staff photographer in Italy from 1944 to 1945. In July of 1945 he was transferred from Italy to India with unit IB 59-T. After a stay in Secunderabad, India, Penn was repatriated to the United States in November of 1945 after the cessation of war with Japan. Penn was awarded the 1939-45 Star and the Italy Star for his service with AFS during the war.
After the war, Penn returned to Vogue as a staff photographer and was later named one of "The World’s 10 Greatest Photographers" in an international poll conducted by Popular Photography Magazine in 1958. Throughout his long career, Penn photographed in numerous styles ranging from celebrity portraiture and fashion to still life and ethnography. His photographs are housed in major museums in America and throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C, and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.
Penn married the fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives in 1950 and had one son, Tom. Irving Penn died at the age of ninety two on October 7, 2009, in New York City.