Arnold Newman:

Arnold Newman was an American photographer who was well known for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He was also known for his abstract still life images. Newman was born in 1918 and died in 2006. His career in photography began in 1938, in which he worked at chain portrait studios in Philadelphia. The majority of his work is black and white but he does have some images in colour.

Arnold Newman favoured prime lenses and clarity in his images. He was also known for his range of lighting techniques in order to create the tone and atmosphere he desired in his portraits. His advanced skills in using natural lighting and studio setups, helped him to achieve a balance between the subject and their environments. Arnold Newman was less interested in the details of the subject’s surroundings and more interested in the symbols he could create from them.

Throughout his career, Arnold Newman photographed a variety of different famous people. For example: Eleanor Roosevelt, Pablo Picasso, Frank Lloyd Wright, Golda Meir, Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, Salvador Dalí, and the former president Bill Clinton. He found his vision in the empathy he felt for artists and their work. Arnold Newman maintained the mindset that even if the subject he photographed was not known or already forgotten, the photograph should still excite and interest the viewer.

One of Arnold Newman’s well known pictures was the one of Igor Stravinsky in which the lid of his grand piano forms a gargantuan musical note representative of the melodic structure of the composer’s work, showing Arnold’s excellence in being able to carefully compose and frame an image to allow the subject’s surrounding to give us an insight into that person’s life, culture or personality. Arnold generally used a large-format camera and tripod in order to capture every detail in a setting/ environment.

“I didn’t just want to make a photograph with some things in the background. The surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it had to be an interesting photograph. Just to simply do a portrait of a famous person doesn’t mean a thing.” -Arnold Newman.

Arnold Newman was said to be influenced by Flemish painters. Additionally, the work of the Cubists, including Picasso, also influenced the way he structured a photograph.

Arnold Newman’s Environmental Portraits:

I enjoyed looking at Arnold Newman’s work as I felt as if I almost had been able to make up a whole backstory about each person purely based off of their facial expressions and environment they were in, which is what a successful environmental portrait should be able to do. I also like the fact that there is no one in the background of the pictures even in places that you would normally expect to be busy. This made my attention be purely on the subject being photographed. Finally, I like how even when Arnold Newman’s pictures are in black and white, they still manage to captivate his audience and allow for such free creativity as you try and guess what the person in the photo’s life is like.