In the late months of 2025, UW’s own Chazen Museum of Art was given a selection of Irving Penn photographs by the Irving Penn Foundation in honor of John Szarkowski, a UW alumnus and former photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art, according to a press release from the Chazen.
Irving Penn was one of the 20th century’s great photographers, known for his arresting images, masterful printmaking and innovative techniques, according to the Irving Penn Foundation.
John Szarkowski played an influential role in establishing Penn as a fine arts photographer. Most notably Szarkowski featured Penn’s work in a major retrospective exhibition at MoMA in 1984, championing Penn’s artistic legacy throughout his career by bringing Penn’s photography into a number of exhibitions. Placing Irving Penn’s photographs in the collection of a teaching museum is a fitting way to commemorate the occasion, according to the Irving Penn Foundation’s announcement of the gift.
The Irving Penn Foundation reached out to the Chazen Museum of Art in 2025, Van Vleck curator of works on paper James Wehn said. The foundation proposed the gift of Penn’s photography in honor of the 100th anniversary of Szarkowski’s birth, falling in December of 2025, according to Wehn.
“I jumped at this opportunity because photography is a very important modern medium,” Wehn said. “We want to develop that part of the Chazen’s collection”.
The Chazen initially had one of Penn’s photographs in their collection, and received 28 photographs from the Irving Penn Foundation, a massive increase in the number of works the Chazen has from the incredibly influential photographer, Wehn said.
The photographs span the breadth of Irving Penn’s career, from some of his earliest works in the 1930’s up to the year 2000. Penn’s work complements works by other American artists who are working at around the same time, according to Wehn.
“They offer insights into American culture, visual culture and material culture,” Wehn said. “Especially the middle of the twentieth century into the latter part of the twentieth century”.
Penn’s interest in photography started in street photographs before his eventual commercial Vogue photography.
Penn’s personal projects outside of commercial photography range from a series of nude photos of women, to literal garbage to cigarettes, according to Wehn.
“We have this ability to represent work that were his personal artistic projects that often capture his talents for commercial photography, but then translate that into fine art,” Wehn said.
The photos will be used to augment existing holdings of photographs from the late 1930s to the end of the twentieth century, according to the Chazen’s press release.
Visitors can make an appointment to visit the Chazen’s Chen family study room and request to see the photographs, and the photos can be seen now at the Chazen’s online collection.
