Mouth (for L'Oréal), New York

Working for almost 70 years, Irving Penn produced groundbreaking images that blurred the boundaries between advertising and art. By the early 1950s, he had established a successful career as an editorial photographer at Vogue magazine and began taking on freelance advertising assignments, creating innovative photographs that stood out for their striking simplicity and unexpected details. This advertising image for L’Oréal cosmetics likens a model’s lips to a painter’s palette—offering an enticing twist on conventional representations of beauty.