“You don’t take pictures with your camera. You take pictures with your mind and heart.” – Arnold Newman.

Arnold Newman was born on March 3rd 1918, and passed away on June 6th 2006 as an American photographer who was greatly known for his environmental portraits of mainly artists and politicians. He was also widely known for his still life images which were described as “abstract”.

Examples of his environmental portraiture:

Examples of his still life:

The first ever environmental portraits were created by Newman, as he was seen to push the boundaries of traditional portrait photography during the 20th century. Newman’s passion for photography began in the 1920’s, and started taking environmental portraits in the 1940’s. He included a variety of famous people in his portraits, swell as scientists, workers, composers and political leaders.

Image Analysis:

I chose to analyse this portrait by Newman because it differs from Sander’s work. This is because often Sander’s backgrounds are dull and dark, so we can focus on the subject in the image. However the background in this image is quite chaotic, which distracts the viewer from looking at the subject. This image intrigued me because usually in environmental portraits the subject is centred, and standing up. This shows us they know what they are doing and portray dominance in the photo. This photo is unique to the others because the subject is sat down, and looks overwhelmed by the mess around him. This tells us that his profession is very busy and difficult.

What I like about Newman’s work is all his photos are pure and raw. They capture the true reality and events happening at the time, rather than editing them to what he thinks the viewers will like. The people in his photos are never specifically posing for the camera, instead they are acting out their proper duties. In a way, this makes us feel more connected to them by understanding how their job really is. I will take inspiration from Newman when creating my own images. I will have some where the subject is not using for the camera, to create a sense of realism. Yet I will also have some where poses and props are used to make them more effective and intriguing.

Visual:

• Messy
• Chaotic
• Intimidating
• Dull
• Background is the main focus rather than the subject
• Bright lighting
• Depth of field is large

Emotional:

• I feel sympathetic towards the subject as he looks overwhelmed
• Stress
• Work overload
• Uneasy
• Sense of unhappiness

Technical:

• Balanced composition from either side of the subject, which distracts us
• Line of symmetry
• Lighting is coming from the camera, so the image is bright
• Lots of distractions around the subject, which makes us focus on the background

Conceptual:

• This image was taken in Essen, Germany in 1963.

• ” Mr. Newman’s portraits were defined by his sitter’s environments, which led him to be known as the “father of the environmental portrait.”

More examples of his environmental portraits: