Newman, Arnold Abner

Related Category: Photography: Biographies

1918–2006, American portrait photographer, b. New York City. He is known for his “environmental portraiture,” photographs that capture their sitters in characteristic settings, often with objects emblematic of their lives. He opened his own studio in Miami Beach in 1942, moving to New York City in 1946. That year he made one his famous study of Igor Stravinsky, a photograph dominated by the curving black lid of the composer's grand piano. Often working for Harper's Bazaar, Look, and above all Life, Newman created compelling portraits those who defined his era, among them Pablo Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mantle, Afred Krupp, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. His work is featured in several books, including Artists: Portraits from Four Decades (1980), Arnold Newman's Americans (1992), and Arnold Newman (2000).