Irving Penn, who began his career shooting for Vogue in the '40s, died today at 92. No cause of death was given.

Penn once said that "Photographing a cake can be art," and his portraits and still life raised the value of the objects in his work from the mundane into the magnificent. He was know for the extreme precision and realness of his photography, which managed to capture the eye and the imagination in an age well before Photoshop.

His most recent exhibit, Small Trades, a collection of more than 250 full-length portraits that he took in the '50s, is currently on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum in L.A.