Photo Analysis – Arnold Newman

Image result for portrait of Alfred Krupp

Technical: The lighting seems to be both artificial and natural. The natural lighting seems to be coming from the windows on the roof , however the lighting that has been placed above
Alfred Krupp seems to be artificial. There seems to be a bit of motion blur of the moving trains in the background and the light which slightly deflect the focus of the reader. The temperature of the image is leaning towards the warmer side.

Contextual: Alfred Krupp was allegedly involved in the usage of slave labour in order to create Nazi weapons, this makes me think that he is a heartless business man, this matched with his suit and lighting shows the audience of what the true reality of this image represents.
When Krupp’s saw this image he was “livid” as this portrayed Krupp in a negative way which Arnold Newman, as a jew used photography as a source of revenge and a way to spread awareness of this terrible scene.

Visual: The general colour of the image seems to be dark and gloomy which adds a sense of mystery and deviance. The tone of the picture is prefomenantely dark as the only source of light is in the windows of the background. The main focus on the image is on Krupp and the view of the image then follows in the shape of a triangle. Tension is very much present in this image due Krupp as he seems to be trying to close a crucial business deal.
After observing the image for a while the audience can start to see that most things in the picture are slightly off center, from his hands, the ceiling windows and even the two pillars on the sides of the images all give an idea that something isnt quite right and that Krupp isn’t as perfect as he thinks he is.

Conceptual: Overall I personally feel as though the image represents the idea that not everything is what it sees and although at first glance everything looks normal, when you start to pay attention to the little details the image really starts to show Krupp’s in his true colours. I also think that the dark looking train station reflects Krupp’s work as he was part of something terrible which he shouldn’t have been able to do.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *