Today, the San Francisco 49ers signed now-former Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree. Frankly, I expected he and agent Eugene Parker to avoid the purgatory to come if Crabtree skipped out on the Niners and sign what turned out to be a nice six-year, $32 million deal with a $17 million signing bonus.
What I didn't expect was that Crabtree's signing would be overshadowed by Irving Penn on Twitter's "Trending Topics". But who's Irving Penn?
Irving Penn's a fashion photographer who's work you've seen, even if you didn't know who did it. My favorite, which is the way I became just remotely familar with Penn, is this one of Truman Capote:
Truman Capote
But other than that, I'm a bit less than informed of all of Penn's work. Since Penn passed away at 92 years old, let's take a brief look at some of his work and life.
Penn who was born June 18, 1917, passed away in his apartment in New York City today from unknown causes, according to the LA Times. But what he leaves behind is a legacy of achievement in capturing life through the lens in an unforgettable way and presenting his view through Vogue. He was with the magazine since 1943.
Penn got his start in the public eye when Harper's Bazaar published his sketches after he graduated from the Philadelphia Museum School after 1938, then joined Vogue in '43. From there, he launched a career that saw him photograph celebrities like W. H. Auden and Marlene Dietrich.
Marlene Dietrich
Penn's style has been described as "minimalist" and "classical" but I would just use the word "cool" because it seems to capture all of the other adjectives in one fell swoop. Always in black and white, his images captured the attention of modern industrial culture and defined the World around him.
Since Penn passed away on the same day Michael Crabtree was signed, it's fair to ask if Crabtree will be the kind of artist on the football field that Penn was away from it.
Only time will tell.
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