Arnold Abner Newman was an American photographer, known for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians and for  popularizing this style of portraiture. With this method, he placed his sitters in a setting representative of their professions, aiming to capture the essence of an individual’s life and work.

His environmental approach to portraiture was influenced by symbolism and impressionism, and defined by the imperative of captivating the viewer no matter how well known the subject was and often stressed that he was motivated by a genuine interest in his subjects, and in the craft of photography. While he specialized in photographing artists, Newman captured the likeness of a vast range of figures, from athletes and actors to presidents and politicians.

This image shows the sitter, Eugene Smith, sat in a messy and chaotic room. Eugene was a famous American photojournalist so we can assume this image is shot in his workplace/studio as the background shows images being produced. I find this image creates a feeling of being overwhelmed as he is positioned in the centre of the image to be small compared to the mess around him portraying the large impact his work takes on his life as he allows it to be larger than himself and shows how his work has taken over his life. However, In contrast to that I get a sense of a calm and contentness from this image presenting W.Eugene as comforted by his work as he has made it his life.