or space. In this way, the subject’s surroundings are
not mere background but include elements indicat-
ing interactions between society and his subjects,
setting up a dialogue that establishes one creative
unit. Newman, nevertheless, eschews any attempt
at establishing a formula.
My idea of photography came from the snapshot. As a
boy I remember seeing photographs of Teddy Roosevelt.
In the official portrait, he looked like an embalmed,
overstuffed walrus. But in another, a snapshot, he was
photographed with his foot on top of an animal he’d shot
and was grinning like mad and one could sense from a
photograph like this what the man really looked like,
how he stood, even what he was like as a human being. I
began to develop an idea that combined the reality of
the snapshot with a creative graphic approach. I wanted
to show where a person lived and worked, a kind of
reality combined with a carefully worked out composi-
tion. I didn’t set out to do something different so much as
to do something that interested me.Born in New York City, the second of three sons of
Isidor and Freda Newman, Arnold moved at the age
of two to Atlantic City where his father pursued a dry
goods business. When that faltered, he managed
small hotels in Atlantic City and in Miami. In 1936,
Newman graduated from high school and with his
parents’ blessing studied art, earning a scholarship to
the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida.
Plans of becoming a painter ended two years later
whenfamilyfinancialdifficultiescausedhisdeparture
from academia. A chance encounter on the Atlantic
City boardwalk soon changed his life when Leon
Perskie, a professional photographer and family
friend, encouraged Newman to work in Philadelphia
where Perskie’s son owned a chain of inexpensive
portraitstudiosintheLitBrothersdepartmentstores.
Soon Newman was living in Philadelphia with his
childhood friend, Ben Rose, who graduated from
the School of Industrial Arts in photography under
the tutelage of Alexey Brodovitch, art director at
Harper’s Bazaar. Newman planned to work by day
and study art at night but, after watching his friends
photographing, he soon borrowed a camera and
began to develop his own photographic vision.
Work, meanwhile, meant churning out 40–60
portraits daily. Stifled by the humdrum, Newman
started photographing people on his own, experi-
menting with techniques promulgated by modern-
ism and abstraction. He was influenced by the
works of painters Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian,
and the Farm Security Administration photographs,
especially those of Walker Evans, whose catalogue
for the 1938 exhibition,American Photographsat
the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) had opened
Newman’s eyes to a new way of seeing.
He then returned to Florida where he accepted
more lucrative employment as manager of the
Tooley-Myron chain portrait studio in West Palm
Beach. By 1941, Newman couldn’t wait to start
working independently and began photographing
people in their everyday surroundings—on the
porch or on the street—away from the artificiality
of the studio. On the advice of friends, Newman
traveled to New York City to see Beaumont New-
hall, MoMA’s Curator of Photography. Impressed
by Newman’s portfolio although not by his print-
ing skills, Newhall recommended that he see
Alfred Stieglitz. Discovery by Newhall and Stie-
glitz, two illustrious names in the history of Amer-
ican photography, propelled Newman to leave
Florida and move to New York City. Finally
able to practice his own unique style of portrai-
ture, Newman set out to find interesting people,
such as painters, sculptors, and other creative peo-
ple who worked well with his environmental con-
cept. Raphael Soyer became the first of what
Newman calls his ‘‘experimental subjects.’’ A
joint exhibition with Ben Rose at the A.D. Gallery
followed in 1941. Attended by New York’s adver-
tising and cultural elite as well as by Ansel Adams
and Newhall, who purchased a print for MoMA’s
permanent collection, this event launched New-
man’s professional career.
U.S. Army orders obliged Newman to return to
Miami in 1942, but after receiving a deferment, he
stayed on to open Newman’s Portrait Studio in
Miami Beach. Its success did not keep him from
returning to New York City again and again to
photograph such artists as Piet Mondrian, Marc
Chagall, Charles Burchfield, John Sloan, and Max
Ernst. Throughout his career, Newman has fol-
lowed his maxim that ‘‘a good portrait must first
be a good photograph.’’ From early on, he was
interested in abstraction and in shapes; he found
strength in geometric design and being able to
interconnect geometric shapes in new and unusual
ways. ‘‘For me photography is intellectual excite-
ment,’’ he says, ‘‘a joy and the occasional experi-
ence of rich satisfaction in creating an image that
pleases me as well as others. Is it a portrait? Is it
art? That is up to others to debate. I am pleased
just to make a good photograph.’’
In December 1945, the Philadelphia Museum of
Art organized Artists Look Like This. Critical
acclaim convinced Newman to move to New
York City permanently, and he received his first
assignment for Life, a portrait of playwright
Eugene O’Neill. Among the first photographs he
did forHarper’s Bazaarwas composer Igor Stra-
vinsky seated at a grand piano, an image rejectedNEWMAN, ARNOLD