Newman, Arnold Abner

▪ 2007

      American photographer (b. March 3, 1918, New York, N.Y.—d. June 6, 2006, New York City), specialized in portraits of well-known people posed in settings associated with their work. This approach, known as “environmental portraiture,” greatly influenced portrait photography in the 20th century. Newman studied art (1936–38) at the University of Miami, Fla., before taking a job as an assistant in a photography studio. In 1941 he had his first major exhibition in New York City, and in 1946 he opened his own portrait studio there. Though his initial portraits concentrated on well-known artists, he gradually broadened his subject matter to include famous writers, composers, political leaders, scientists, and business magnates, usually posing them in their own surroundings or in a space that was constructed to reflect their character. Among his best-known portraits is one from 1946 of Igor Stravinsky at his piano. Other well-known subjects included Max Ernst, Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Marilyn Monroe, Alfried Krupp, Pablo Picasso, and Jean Cocteau. Newman published many of his portraits in magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, Time, Look, and Life. The 76 photographic portraits of eminent Britons that Newman made for the National Portrait Gallery in London were published in the book The Great British (1979). Many of his other works were collected in the books One Mind's Eye (1974), Faces USA (1978), Artists: Portraits from Four Decades (1980), Arnold Newman: Five Decades (1986), Arnold Newman's Americans (1992), and Arnold Newman (1999). A film about him, The Image Makers—the Environment of Arnold Newman, was produced in 1977. A major selection of his work was acquired in 1994 by George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y.

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