Irving Penn : small trades

This is a magnificently illustrated volume exploring the acclaimed "Small Trades" series from renowned photographer Irving Penn.

Photographer Irving Penn (b. 1917) is renowned the world over for his innovative contributions to portrait, still life, and fashion photography during a career that has spanned six decades.

In 1950, "Vogue" magazine sent Penn on an assignment to photograph the workers of Paris, and thus his monumental work "Small Trades" began.

Between 1950 and 1951, Penn travelled between Paris, London, and New York to produce an extensive photographic portrait of each city's skilled tradespeople in their work clothes, carrying the tools of their professions.

This generously illustrated volume brings together more than 200 unique images from "Small Trades", alongside essays discussing the history and significance of the series - to both Penn's career and the history of photography - as well as a fascinating interview with Edmonde Charles-Roux, the chief editor for French "Vogue" from 1952-1966, who assisted Penn on his assignment to Paris in 1950.