Irving Penn, though well-known as one of the 20th-century's master photographers, was originally trained as a painter. In 1997 he unearthed a series of his own abstract, mechanistic drawings made between 1939 and 1942, before he began to take photographs.
Tying them together with a narrative about travelers to earth, The Astronomers Plan a Voyage to Earth is a lavishly produced artist's book – a children's story, written for adults.