This portrait image taken by Newman displays a sinister and authoritative man as the vocal point of his work. The photographer’s positioning of the elevated camera angle causes shadows to fall beneath his eyes, cheekbones and nose due to the artificial lighting coming down from the roof beams, setting an unsettling mood as the man stares down the camera lens.
There’s a drastic contrast between the light and dark tones, in the foreground, there is a lot of shadows and dark areas with very dull colours. Further back looking into the background, there is a lot more light overhead, from each side and a window at the back, these point of lighting make the colours of the equipment and objects more vibrant and brighter.
The man seen is in fact Alfred Krupp, who’s family owned the factory he is seated in front of. The Krupp family were German industrialist during WWII, using the factory to made and distribute warfare weaponry made by prisoners from the Jewish camps. The importance of his background is important as the photographer religion is Jewish. Relating to the camera angle, the fact that Newman is looking down on Krupp shows how far society has come since the religious segregation during WWII and that the authority has switched.
