Irvin Penn - Momenti - 1960

Moments. Eight essays in images and words by Irving Penn. Introduction by Alexander Liberman. Text drafted by Rosemary Blackmon. Milan, Domus publishing, 1960. Italian First Edition. Size 34 x 25.5 cm. Hardcover cloth binding with dust jacket. Sturdy slipcase. 183 pages. Reproductions in black and white and color, some two-page spreads. A loose brochure with technical data about the published photographs attached. Signs of use on the slipcase - small tears to the dust jacket, in particular a 2 cm one near the spine without loss of paper. Auction without reserve!!!


The book "Moments" by Irving Penn (the Italian edition of the famous Moments Preserved from 1960) gathers eight visual essays spanning fashion to portraits of prominent twentieth-century figures.
Among the celebrated personalities photographed and included in the work are:
Writers and intellectuals: Truman Capote (portrayed in the famous "corner"), T.S. Eliot, Susan Sontag (with her son David), Anaïs Nin, John Updike and Carson McCullers.
Visual artists: Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, Joan Miró (with daughter Dolores), Alberto Giacometti, Willem de Kooning and Barnett Newman.
Musicians and directors: Igor Stravinsky, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Ingmar Bergman, Martin Scorsese and Rudolf Nureyev.
Icons of fashion and cinema: Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn (model and Penn’s wife), Christian Dior, Grace Kelly, Al Pacino, Isabella Rossellini, Nicole Kidman and Spencer Tracy.
The volume also includes portraits of ordinary people and workers captured during his travels, such as subjects from the "Small Trades" series and populations of remote places like Dahomey or New Guinea.