His work does more than capture moments; it captures the essence of his subjects and invites us to see the world anew. His enduring legacy lies in the ability of his photographs to excite our imagination every time we see them. It is truly an honour to be able to present this wonderful exhibition in A Coruña as we continue our mission to showcase the very best of fashion photography. Irving Penn: Centennial is a wonderful odyssey through the lens of one of photography’s greatest practitioners; a celebration of artistry, printmaking, and vision; of a photographer whose work remains as relevant and powerful today as it was decades ago.’

The exhibition explores Penn’s profound interest in the ephemerality and complexity of the human condition, evidenced not only in his portraits, but also in the masterful still lifes that bookend his career. Approaching photography as a fine art long before it was widely recognized as such, Penn paired nuanced composition with an uncanny talent for observing human expression, attitude, and demeanour. As the preeminent photographer at Vogue, Penn was uniquely placed to create a record of 20th-century cultural history. The exhibition presents Penn’s photographs of such leading lights of the screen as Marlene Dietrich and Audrey Hepburn, renowned designers Gianni Versace, Issey Miyake and Yves Saint Laurent, and important writers and artists such as Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Salvador Dali, Zaha Hadid and Richard Avedon. But Penn’s egalitarian spirit and heightened photographic sensitivity made his portraits of everyday people — tradespeople, street vendors, and residents of Cuzco, Peru — equally moving and powerful.

Opening to the public at the MOP Foundation on 23 November 2024 and running through until 1 May 2025 Irving Penn: Centennial is the most comprehensive retrospective of the renowned photographer to date, revealing his extraordinary artistic versatility and range.

Irving Penn was one of the 20th century’s greatest photographers. He is rightly celebrated for his meticulous approach, his minimalist style, masterful printmaking, and bold artistic experiments. Penn possessed the uncanny ability to infuse his photographs with a sense of timelessness and narrative depth, no matter whether he was capturing the weary eyes of labourers, the serene beauty of fashion models, or the poignancy of ageing flowers. His work is characterized by a relentless pursuit of perfection and an unerring eye for detail, which extended to his meticulous approach to printmaking.

Penn was a regular contributor to Vogue magazine for more than seven decades, during which he revolutionised fashion photography, positioning models against neutral backdrops to emphasise fabrics, gesture and expression. His fashion work not only redefined the genre but also set new standards for artistic and technical excellence.

Although best known for his psychologically penetrating portraits, Penn was a prolific artist whose career spanned seventy years and a wide array of interests. Irving Penn: Centennial captures every period of that dynamic career behind the camera, beginning in the late 1930s and continuing into the first decade of the 21st century.