Brazilian model Caroline Trentini is photographed by Ethan James Green [IG] in ‘The Workers’, a tribute to master photographer Irving Penn’s 1950-51 ‘Small Trades’ project.

Green is generous in admitting the impact of Irving Penn on his own artistry.

Xenia May Settel styles Trentini with fashion choices affirming her specific trade, punctuated with touches of surrealism and a menacing vibe. These images have been created for Mastermind Magazine #15 Fall/Winter 2024./ Makeup by Hiromi Ueda; hair by Damien Boissinot

AOC loved Green’s Mastermind 14 ‘Between the Sea and Me’.

Born in 1917 in Plainfield, New Jersey to Russian Jewish parents, Irving Penn initially studied under Alexey Brodovitch in his Design Laboratory at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from 1934-38. The photographer eventually found himself at Vogue magazine, where his images became legendary and familiar to most AOC friends and family.

Penn's notable series emerged from his fascination with capturing dignity in everyday labor. Created during the late 1950s and early 1960s, this series broke away from his typical high-fashion assignments and focused instead on individuals engaged in manual and skilled trades.

Penn's fascination with the people who sustain the fabric of society through their manual labor resonates deeply with today’s progressive movement in America.

Conceived during a time when such professions were beginning to fade due to industrial and technological advancements, Penn's series serves as a documentation of a vanishing way of life. He was inspired by the raw authenticity in the faces and attire of these workers, from butchers to welders, who embodied the essence of their trades. By isolating his subjects against neutral backdrops, Penn stripped away any distractions, allowing their presence and dignity to command the viewer's attention.

Small images from Penn’s ‘Small Trades’ project appeared in Vogue Magazine, as explained by this brief video from The Phillips Auction House.

Penn chose to isolate his subjects in the neutral space of his studio over the vernacular setting of the streets in London, Paris and New York.

The photographer’s studios, with their signature mottled gray backdrop, provided a timelessness to each portrait. His sitters were encouraged to occupy the space as they pleased, allowing their personalities to emerge under Penn’s patient eye.

"Taking people away from their natural circumstances and putting them into the studio in front of a camera did not simply isolate them, it transformed them," said Penn, who also observed distinct differences among subjects representing the three global capitals.