One of the principal fashion photographers of our age, Irving Penn spent his career documenting the worlds of couture and beauty in his own highly innovative and elegant style. Penn mastered the existing vocabulary of fashion photography early on and then expanded upon it to create a new ideal, in many instances redefining what constituted beauty in a photograph. In Contact Lens, New York, Penn presents an unconventional view of a beautifully maquillaged eye about to receive a color contact lens. Playful and technically brilliant, Penn’s photograph shows us the unglamourous reality lurking behind the perfect look.