![]() Where it was inconvenient, if not impossible, for Newman to take his subjects in domestic situ, he recreated their natural habitat. ![]() The reason why his portrait of Max Ernst is flanked by so many of his most famous works and influences is due to a rapid re-hang of his living-room wall Piet Mondrian holds his easel, not in the simplistic fashion of an artist demonstrating his profession, but in the symbolic manner of contributing to the geometry that so clearly reflects his art, by making it intrinsic to the photographic composition. His preference for photographing his subjects in their own surroundings meant rarely venturing outside: not only could he not control the skies but, more significantly, he could not as easily "arrange the environment". Despite a stated preference for "natural light", he employed a battery of lights, for choice "bounced" off a screen to mute the harshness of a direct spot. Newman wished to control all aspects of his images. ![]() ![]() As astute with lighting as Irving Penn or Richard Avedon, as interested in the humanity of his subjects (or their lack of it) as Edward Steichen or Henri Cartier-Bresson, Newman combined some of the signal characteristics of these very different genres of portraiture with a style entirely his own.Īpproximately described as "environmental portraiture", this style spelt a move away from the studio without going as far as the street. Arnold Newman, who has died aged 88, was one of the most important portrait photographers of the last century. ![]()
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