Irving Penn saw his subjects in granular detail. With his sharp eye for composition, nuance, and printmaking, the American artist occupied a formerly unchartered realm of modern, minimal mastery. A fashion photographer first and foremost, Penn is also known and celebrated for his perceptive portraits, refined yet decadent still lifes, and elegant nude studies. These influential works and many before unseen prints are now on show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through July 30 as part of a major retrospective to mark the centennial of the artist’s birth.