Getty acquires Irving Penn series

Vogue fashion photographer Irving Penn began taking photographs of workers in Paris in 1950, usually posing them in natural north light. He continued in New York, and eventually amassed a body of work called "The Small Trades" that included 252 portraits. The Getty announced Wednesday that it bought the whole set after five years of negotiations with Penn, who is now 90. “We think he’s one of the greatest living artists in any medium,” said Weston Naef, the Getty’s senior photography curator. We’re seeing these pictures as if they’re Monet’s waterlilies, a single coherent body of work.”