Photo : Irving Penn, Condé Nast Pinault Collection
The World According to Penn
Step into the visionary mind of a photographer who redefined modern imagery through his clean, minimalist aesthetic and sharp focus on the human essence. This sprawling exhibition brings together hundreds of pieces, from timeless fashion portraits to striking still lifes, inviting you to explore the evolution of a truly uncompromising artist. It is a masterclass in composition that turns the lens onto the beauty found in the simplest of forms.
Bourse de commerce - Pinault Collection (Paris 1st)
About
The Bourse de Commerce presents the exhibition The World According to Penn from September 30, 2026, to January 10, 2027. Featuring nearly 450 photographs from the Pinault Collection, this display highlights the extensive career of the influential American photographer Irving Penn, covering works from the 1940s to the early 2000s. Visitors can explore a unique arrangement of fashion photography, portraits, still lifes, and ethnographic studies that showcase the artist's minimalist aesthetic and technical precision. The venue is fully wheelchair accessible, ensuring a comfortable experience for all guests. Admission tickets range from 7 to 9 euros.
As part of the exhibition “Remember Me”, Gallery 2 brings together nearly 450 photographs by Irving Penn from the Pinault Collection. In a unique configuration, the installation “The World According to Penn” offers a rare opportunity to embrace the vastness of a body of work created between the 1940s and the early 2000s.
Irving Penn (1917–2009), a major American photographer of the 20th century, is recognized for having profoundly renewed fashion photography and portraiture by imposing a sober, direct, and timeless aesthetic. Rather than a chronological or strictly thematic path, this is an immersion into the heart of the artist's visual universe, where portraits of personalities, fashion photographs, ethnographic reports, nude studies, still lifes, and floral compositions engage in a free dialogue with one another. These connections reveal the constants of his work: the rigor of composition, attention to textures, a taste for simplicity, and a unique ability to capture human presence and the beauty of the simplest forms. The famous Corner Portraits rub shoulders with cigarettes, withered flowers, or fashion silhouettes, forming a vast visual mosaic that invites visitors to enter Irving Penn's mental studio. Through this original installation, the coherence and modernity of an oeuvre that never ceased to redefine the possibilities of photography and our way of looking at the world are unveiled.
Perfectionist, humanist, and eclectic. This is how one could describe, if one had to summarize them, the work and immense photographic career of Irving Penn. Irving Penn was, above all, a studio photographer. The “neutral zone” he methodically conceived with the help of a simple canvas or white paper background bathed in natural light defines a spatial framework that decontextualizes while highlighting the physical presence of his many subjects. This principle of work, of great modesty in its implementation, would follow him throughout his career.
Constituting an invaluable legacy for the world of photography, the work of Irving Penn is represented within the Pinault Collection by an important holding of his images, already made visible in 2014–2015 on the occasion of the monographic exhibition “Irving Penn, Resonance” at the Palazzo Grassi, in Venice.
Curated by: Matthieu Humery, photography advisor to the Pinault Collection, with the collaboration of Lola Regard, project manager.
Our take on this event
Located in the Galerie 2 of the Bourse de Commerce, The World According to Penn offers an immersive look into the visual universe of one of the 20th century’s most significant photographers. Rather than following a rigid timeline, the exhibition creates a dialogue between diverse subjects, from famous portraiture to fragile still lifes. Curated by Matthieu Humery and Lola Regard, the presentation emphasizes Penn’s signature style: his rigorous composition, use of natural light, and his ability to capture the essence of his subjects within his trademark minimalist studio setting.
This collection, drawn from the Pinault Collection's significant holdings, demonstrates the enduring modernity of Penn's work. Whether you are interested in fashion history or photographic technique, the installation invites you to step inside the artist's creative process. The exhibition is open from Wednesday to Monday, 11:00 to 19:00, starting September 30, 2026, and running until January 10, 2027.
The site is wheelchair accessible. Tickets are priced between 7 and 9 euros. Do not miss this opportunity to observe how Irving Penn’s perfectionist approach continues to shape our understanding of photographic art.
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