A selection of portraits by Irving Penn.

A lot of Irving Penn's methods and tricks became absolute cliches in fashion and artistic photography worldwide (even if trying to use the same technique and creating a masterpiece are two very different things and the latter doesn’t happen too often). It's actually hard to believe now that, for example, putting a simple white or gray background behind your model can be so much of a revolutionary idea for a professional photographer… And yet it was, in the times of Irvin.

The portraits you see here are just a selection of my favorite "celebrity shots" by Penn.

It's such a pleasure to see that once in a while in human history it happens that both the artist and his models are equally huge in their talent.