Irving Penn

Virginia A. Heckert and Anne Lacoste

In 1950 and 1951, Irving Penn created portraits of workers in Paris, London, and New York who are dressed in their work clothes and carrying the tools of their occupations. Small Trades constitutes Penn's most extensive body of work to date, and he returned to it over many decades to make ever more exacting prints in gelatin silver and in platinum/palladium.

More than two hundred images from the series are reproduced in this book, which also includes an introductory essay that describes the history and context of the Small Trades series and its importance in the evolution of Penn's career. An interview with Edmonde Charles-Roux, the chief editor of French Vogue from 1954 to 1966 who had assisted Penn on the project in Paris, provides fascinating insights regarding the sittings there.