the stranger behind the camera; A Notebook at Random is Irving Penn's visual memoir-a look back, writes Jay Fielden, at the cultural giants, fashion legends, and lost worlds that have driven his life and work.(Interview)(Biography)

Byline: Jay Fielden

Exalted though the name Irving Penn may be in the worlds of fashion and photography, the man himself has always preferred the flip side of fame-privacy almost to the point of anonymity.

In his 60-odd-year career, Penn has rarely given in to the curiosity of a journalist and has almost never allowed himself to become the subject of a photograph, even one of his own-all too wary, perhaps, of just how much can be revealed in a click. "I don't want to be a 'personage,' " he explains (although that hasn't stopped him from photographing some of the most seminal personalities of our time). From the beginning, however, he has been unusually ...