“We do not take pictures with our cameras, but with our hearts and minds,” so said Arnold Newman, one of the world’s best-known and most admired photographers to have ever lived. Known for his “environmental portraits” of artists and politicians, he captured the essence of his subjects by showing them in their natural surroundings. As he said, “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.” Newman was a master at composition and was meticulous about his work. He even used a large-format camera and tripod to ensure that every detail of a scene was recorded. His signature image, the one most will remember him by, is the last one in this post. It’s a beautiful, black and white portrait of Russian Composer Igor Stravinsky seated at a grand piano. Look closely and you’ll notice that the piano was strategically silhouetted against a blank wall, creating an illusion that the lid is an abstract musical note.
Max Ernst, German Painter and Sculptor, 1942
Marc Chagall, Russian/French Painter, 1942
Isamu Noguchi, Japanese American Artist and Landscape Architect, 1947
Man Ray, American Surrealist Painter, 1948
Josef Albers, German-American Painter, 1948
Jackson Pollock, American Painter, 1949
Jean Arp, German-French Painter and Sculptor, 1949
Salvador Dali, Spanish Surrealist Painter, 1951
Jean Dubuffet, French Painter and Sculptor, 1956
Milton Avery, American Modern Painter, 1961
Marcel Duchamp, French Surrealist Painter, 1966
Frank Stella, American Painter, 1967
Claes Oldenburg, Swedish Sculptor, 1967
Leonard Bernstein, American Conductor, 1968
Louise Nevelson, American Sculptor, 1972
Roy Lichtenstein, American Pop Artist, 1976
Joan Mir, Catalan/Spanish Painter and Sculptor, 1979
Arthur Miller, American Playwright, 1947
Ayn Rand, Russian-American Novelist, 1964
Ansel Adams, American Photographer, 1975
Truman Capote, American Novelist, 1977
I.M. Pei, Chinese Architect, 1967
Frank Lloyd Wright, America Architect, 1947
Igor Stravinsky, Russian Composer, Pianist and Conductor, 1946 Arnold Newman