Irving Penn Four unmissable photography exhibitions

'In his 92 years, most of them actively working across the 20th century, Irving Penn turned his lens to fashion, portraiture, landscapes, travel, and still life. As a favoured son of Condé Nast – one of his first jobs in New York was as assistant to celebrated Vogue art director Alexander Liberman, and he still holds the record as the magazine’s longest-standing contributor – he was one of a handful of artists working in editorial contexts who set the visual tone. Now showing until midsummer at San Francisco’s de Young Museum is a sprawling retrospective comprising 175 images spanning Penn’s nearly 70-year career. Among them are nudes, celebrity portraits, the culinary-themed still lives commissioned to accompany Jeffrey Steingarten’s food features for Vogue, and a special room dedicated to the photographer’s local work during the city’s Summer of Love in 1967.' – Maria Shollenbarger