Arnold Newman is an American Photographer who's known for his environmental portraits. He uses a range of different backgrounds, displaying people in the most extravagant of ways possible, letting the viewers know about their personality. Newman's approach to exposures varies a lot though, so I sometimes find it hard to distinguish when a work is his.
This first image captures Igor Stravinsky. Right away you can tell he's a skilled musician. Newman spent lots of time figuring out just how to crop Stravinsky in the image. Despite the image being about him, he isn't really the main subject of the image. It's the shapes, the black and white and the piano, looking like a musical note. It's a really interesting way to capture someone, especially in their element.
This next image features former president John F Kennedy. Newman portrays him in such grand architecture. Yet he makes Kennedy look small compared to the rest of the background. I feel like this image is different than the one of Stravinsky. Stravinsky is part of the background, where as here Kennedy is sort of lost in it. I'm curious if there was an intention to do this, or if Newman just intended to capture the architecture along with Kennedy. In terms of composition, this image is very well composed, having lots of nice grey tonalities, and high contrast to help distinguish what's going on.
This image portrays Salvador Dali, a surrealist artist. This image displays Dali's sort of chaotic nature, especially with him being a surrealist artist. It sort of shows how he may view himself, or possibly how the world sees him. The way he stands out in the greyish backdrop with everything sort of ripped up is neat. He almost emerges from the background, yet has the posture of one in control. After all, he does control the chaos of his works.
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