Arnold Newman (1918 – 2006)

Arnold Newman is widely renowned for pioneering and popularizing the environmental portrait. With his method of portraiture, he placed his sitters in surroundings representative of their professions, aiming to capture the essence of an individual’s life and work. Using a large-format camera and tripod, he worked to record every detail of a scene. Newman’s best-known images were in black and white, although he often photographed in color.

Image Analysis

The focal point of the image is the man’s eyes, the black and white creates depth and texture on the man face. The lighting used is harsh to create the shadows, this creates the contrast in the image from the brightest areas in the middle of his face to the darkest under his eyes. The shadows help to create depth of field as seen on the mans face and hand but the background is blurred. The contextual factors of the image could tell a story about this man’s life, this brings in the idea of environmental portraits and there are stories behind these people. In my work I am going to try and use similar lighting techniques as the photographer.