Penn & Fashion

From 30 September 2026 to 17 January 2027, the MEP presents the exhibition PENN & FASHION. It pays tribute to Irving Penn, one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. The author of a body of work always ahead of its time, Irving Penn profoundly shaped the history of fashion photography through his more than sixty-year collaboration with Vogue magazine. His pared-back aesthetic, like his exceptional command of composition, influenced generations of photographers.

The exhibition follows a chronological route through the career of Irving Penn from 1947 to 2008. It opens in the 1950s with his legendary photographs of Parisian haute couture collections such as Dior and Balenciaga, brought to life by the great models of the day such as Lisa Fonssagrives and Jean Patchett. In the 1970s, the creations of Ungaro and Courrèges and the extravagant outfits worn by Marisa Berenson or Lauren Hutton caught the photographer's attention, followed in the next decade by the designs of Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. The exhibition also presents the previously unseen collaboration between Irving Penn and the Japanese designer Issey Miyake, whose sculptural garments sit perfectly alongside his spare photographic style.

Over the last three decades of his career, Penn maintained a constant line: a focus on silhouettes, volumes and textures. He photographed in colour the sumptuous gowns created by John Galliano, the opulent models of Christian Lacroix and the spectacular feathered headpieces of Chanel, in images that take the breath away. Finally, his striking images for the beauty pages of Vogue magazine in the 1990s and 2000s bear witness to the creativity and modernity of an artist part of whose work is still to be discovered. Always faithful to a demanding artistic vision, whatever the context of the commission, Penn helped bring art, fashion and commerce closer together with unprecedented mastery. His work is characterised by an elegant simplicity. Each image is the result of a long process of reflection leading to timeless compositions, realised in sophisticated printing techniques, often becoming icons in the history of photography. The exhibition is largely drawn from the MEP's collection and that of Nicola Erni.