Penn, Irving (Photographer) & Liberman, Alexander (Contributor)

Irving Penn Passage: A Work Record

      New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. First Edition / First Printing. As New in As New Dust Jacket. 300 pages. The photographer's third retrospective collection. Now considered a late-modern photography classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with the Softcover Edition. An austerely elegant production by Irving Penn and Nicholas Callaway: Oversize-volume format. Handsome linen cloth boards with titles embossed on cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Irving Penn. Essay by Alexander Lieberman. Printed on thick coated stock paper in the United States to the very highest standards. In pictorial DJ with black titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents some of the most iconic, moving, and simply beautiful photographs ever taken in the 20th century by one of its greatest photographers. The book is aptly titled as the passage of time, place, unique cultures, and beautiful men and women have been Irving Penn's (and photography's) greatest subject. The portrait of two shabbily dressed American-Indian children shyly posing for the camera, their hands resting on an ornate European colonial-period table, is classic Irving Penn, a testament to his greatness and humane-ness as a photographer. It is everything the 20th century is about in one simple yet stunning image: Colonialism and culture, The Old and The New, Rich and Poor, North and South, East and West. "If Richard Avedon was a snapshot Delacroix, all fire and figures, Penn was Ingres with a Leica, all ravishing edges and perfect composition and a quality of deep color that was the envy of every other photographer" (Adam Gopnik). Irving Penn died on October 7, 2009 at the age of 92, his place in photographic history permanent and secure. A sumptuous, heartbreakingly beautiful book, this is a "must-have" title for Irving Penn collectors. This title has been out-of-print for a very long time and is now highly collectible. This is one of very few copies of the First Edition still available online and has absolutely no flaws, a pristine beauty. The copy was in the publisher's original shrinkwrap, had to be removed to check it is the First Edition, and is now protected in plastic covers. Copies available online now command as much as $1000. A rare copy thus. 470 black-and-white and color plates. Irving Penn's "Moments Preserved" was selected as one of the greatest photography books in "The Photobook". One of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. A flawless collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER IRVING PENN TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0679404910.