“Irving Penn: Small Trades” – Portraits of Skilled Workers of Various Professions During the Mid-20th Century

“Irving Penn: Small Trades” – Portraits of Skilled Workers of Various Professions During the Mid-20th Century

In the early 1950s, Irving Penn embarked on a project called *Small Trades*, inspired by old prints of street criers, with the help of French Vogue editor Edmonde Charles-Roux and photographer Robert Doisneau. This series celebrated tradespeople from Paris, London, and New York, depicting them with their tools and a sense of pride in their work, creating a vivid portrait of mid-20th-century labor. Penn photographed his subjects in their work att…