Frozen food is one of Owen Payne's most compelling and interesting themes.

He is known for his contributions to fashion photography with countless images published on Vogue in the 1940s and 50s, and he also mastered the still life genre with his innovative and original approach. Transforming food into a colorful combination of icy cubes made up of fruits and vegetables shows the elegance that people never thought frozen items would bring.

Fruits and vegetables are arranged as precisely as Renaissance paintings, and this photo was taken carefully before the velvety frost melted in the high temperatures of the studio lights. This simple and creative idea led to a powerful and bold image, which is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of still life photography.

Poster / Matte Paper

Born in New Jersey in 1917, Irving Penn studied under Alexey Brodovitch. He photographed countless legendary painters, musicians, actors and philosophers. Over a career spanning seventy years, this American master of photography became a legend himself.

Irving Penn initially joined Vogue as a cover illustrator, subsequently becoming a cover photographer while also editing illustrations for its pages. At Vogue, he developed his distinctive style, especially his skill in constructing finely orchestrated two- and three-dimensional settings, profoundly influencing postwar ideas of fashion photography. In 1953, he established his own commercial photography studio and soon became one of the world's most successful and influential advertising photographers.

Before his death in 2009, Irving Penn had been described as a living archive of portrait photography. Working in fashion photography at the age of 92 was rare indeed, and Penn pioneered a new style of studio portraiture. This stemmed entirely from his commitment to traditional photography and its ability to capture the soul with penetrating insight. Penn liked to carry his “studio” with him—in fact, an old painter’s canvas—and wherever he went, he released the shutter against this particular backdrop. As a result, nearly all of Penn’s work has the look of studio photography.

“People often show the camera the side of themselves they wish to show the world... But what lies behind the appearance is more precious, and more wonderful than they themselves believe.” — Irving Penn