Arnold Newman Portraiture Technique [Archive] - Large Format Photography Forum

neil poulsen

31-Oct-2009, 19:08

Allen in Montreal

31-Oct-2009, 19:38

There was a short doc about him and he told some great stories about shooting some of his most know images. Like you, I like his work, you would probably enjoy the doc if you can find it. I seem to recall he used a Rollie TLR when on the road.

Brian Ellis

31-Oct-2009, 20:03

I've always liked the portraiture work of Arnold Newman, and it leads me to wonder about his technique.

How did he interact with his clients; I've heard he was kind of demanding. How did he set up his lights, for instance to light the background as well as his subjects. The lighting in his photographs is always excellent. I know he used a 4x5 Arca, did he use other format cameras? What film did he use? What was his philosophy regarding photography?

I've heard he offered workshops. I wish I could have taken one. Perhaps other members have taken a workshop from him and have some insights about the above?

In 1996 I attended a workshop at the Maine Photographic Workshops at the same time he was teaching another workshop there. Many of his students were unhappy, some were even demanding their money back. According to them he just spent the time telling stories and wasn't doing any real teaching.

D. Bryant

31-Oct-2009, 20:21

I've always liked the portraiture work of Arnold Newman, and it leads me to wonder about his technique.

How did he interact with his clients; I've heard he was kind of demanding. How did he set up his lights, for instance to light the background as well as his subjects. The lighting in his photographs is always excellent. I know he used a 4x5 Arca, did he use other format cameras? What film did he use? What was his philosophy regarding photography?

I've heard he offered workshops. I wish I could have taken one. Perhaps other members have taken a workshop from him and have some insights about the above?

The link below will take you to a video of Gregory Heisler that may give you a little insight about how Arnold Newman worked:

http://forum-network.org/lecture/gregory-heisler-arnold-newman

I was able to see quite a bit of Newman's work last year; there probably isn't any photographer around now doing this kind of work with large format and film.

His long time assistant Heisler does some great portrait work as well but quite different than the master, Arnold Newman.

Don Bryant

r.e.

1-Nov-2009, 06:55

Heisler's presentation is really interesting. I just wish that the people in the audience hadn't spent so much of the question and answer session obsessing over whether photography is an art and copyright issues.

Heisler uses large format/film at least to some degree. He says that one of his own portraits shown as part of the presentation was shot 11x14 (if I recall, it's the portrait of Liam Neeson), and most if not all of the banjo series on his website is 4x5.

Is it correct that Newman used an Arca-Swiss? Heisler says that when he worked with him, Newman used a 4x5 Orbit View.

Also, how long did Heisler work with Newman? There's an indistinct question at the end to which Heisler responds, I think in reference to Newman, to the effect "I only worked with him for 10 months".

If I have one reservation about Heisler's presentation, it's his suggestion that Newman had no predecessors and pretty much invented environmental portraiture. To my mind, that kind of overstates things.

John Jarosz

1-Nov-2009, 08:13

I found a copy of his 1974 book "One Mind's Eye" (autographed too!) in a Colorado used book store. There isn't a lot of technical details, but there are contact sheets with outtakes, and pages showing his setups with camera, lights and subject (Picasso, JFK, LBJ). The portraits are pretty cool too.

John

Bill_1856

1-Nov-2009, 10:17

What an absolutely great link. However -- you should have mentioned that it is 1 hr 16 min long!

Gordon Moat

1-Nov-2009, 10:37

http://www.pdngallery.com/legends/newman/

I really like his work, and the approach he takes. I recall reading about his encounter with Picasso, though I forget which publication. A few years ago, a paper company gave me a special printed promotional item that was a large print size book of Arnold Newman portraits. I still look at that book time to time, and it is inspiring.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography (http://www.gordonmoat.com)

mandoman7

1-Nov-2009, 11:35

Heisler makes the case for Newman being responsible for breaking the mold of formal studio portraiture, and presents a lot of examples of rigidly posed 19th century portraits followed by some of Newman's dramatic compositions. While I can go along with the idea that Newman brought a new emphasis to the graphic content of portraiture, I couldn't help thinking about other names like Cartier-Bresson, Strand, Walker Evans, among others, who also made significant contributions to the craft of environmental portraiture.

Robert Skeoch

1-Nov-2009, 15:20

When I just got out of college Newman was one of my favorite photographers so I went to NYC to see him.

His studio was in an interesting part of town but kinda dumpy.... at least compared to the sterile commercial studios I'd been in.

Years later I went to a birthday party for him and took a cake-cutting shot of him that ran in American Photographer. LOL

Always loved his work. A lot of it was shot on 8x10. I don't like his more recent work which is shot on Canon (I think).

He often said he liked using existing light... although many of the shots appear to have lighting.

-rob

r.e.

1-Nov-2009, 15:28

He often said he liked using existing light... although many of the shots appear to have lighting.

Heisler says near the beginning of his presentation that Newman used available light, but about half way through suddenly starts talking about him using tungsten, apparently the cheapest tungsten money could buy :)

Mark Sampson

2-Nov-2009, 05:42

If you can find it, there was an extensive feature on Newman in Pop Photo about 1980 or so. It detailed a working portrait session with one of the scientists who discovered DNA (Crick or Watson). I wish I could find my copy- it described his appraoch and technique quite well- IIRC he used a 4x5 rail camera, and Tri-X in D-76.

Frank Petronio

2-Nov-2009, 07:19

I don't doubt he was like Ansel Adams, i.e. he used whatever he needed to accomplish the task at hand. But the books I've seen have always made it seem he worked in 8x10. I remember seeing photos of him "shooting" Jimmy Carter ~unfortunately~ with an 8x10 and a lot of strobe.

John Jarosz

2-Nov-2009, 07:36

"One Mind's Eye" was published in 1974. There is an appendix that lists the format used with all the photos in the book. In the preface Newman says he uses all formats up to 8x10, but for this book the majority of photos were taken with 4x5. the rest were 6x6 or 35mm. So he must have jumped into 8x10 in later years. The "official" LBJ portrait was done in 4x5.

William McEwen

3-Nov-2009, 07:38

A 37-minute video about Arnold Newman here:

http://dontremain.com/movie/newman.html

Excellent stuff.

r.e.

3-Nov-2009, 08:51

Good video. For the impatient, the meat runs from just after the 11 minute mark to the 22 minute mark.

Interesting that his portrait of Picasso was heavily cropped; it appears that he also used the crop to tilt Picasso's head.

It looks like Nebraska Educational Television must have done a piece on Newman a long time ago; at least, that is who supplied the cine footage that is used in this video.

Allen in Montreal

3-Nov-2009, 10:20

I once read a story about how Krupp had Newman's hotel room searched and Newman had hidden the rolls of film from the shoot, that image looks like a 4x5 format, not a roll film image, unless he was shooting 6x7 which seems unlikely given the period.

Has anyone else read that story of Krupp having the room searched?

r.e.

3-Nov-2009, 10:29

Heisler talks a little about the Krupp portrait in his video presentation. I don't recall whether he says that he was present at the shoot. He says that Newman went in with the intention of making Krupp look evil and that Krupp had no idea what Newman was going to do. According to Heisler, Krupp figured that he would be the subject of a standard industrialist portrait.

If that is true, it is hard to imagine why Krupp would have Newman's room searched, unless Newman processed the film and Krupp or someone around him was shown a print.

I don't think that Heisler talks about what camera Newman used, but maybe I'm wrong. Based on everything else Heisler says, and for that matter what another assistant in the second video says, the camera was probably a 4x5. The assistant in the second video says that Newman shot 35mm and 4x5, very occasionally 8x10 and never, or almost never, medium format.

Heisler does say that after this portrait Newman couldn't go back to Germany. Heisler says this in a completely deadpan tone, so maybe he was being serious.

r.e.

3-Nov-2009, 10:38

What I don't understand is why Krupp would let Newman photograph him in the first place. Not only was Newman Jewish, but according to the second video, his wife was heavily involved in Israel/zionism and had been a member of Haganah.

Allen in Montreal

3-Nov-2009, 14:36

What I don't understand is why Krupp would let Newman photograph him in the first place. .......

Vanity?

In the piece I read about that image, Krupp started out being enthusiastic, but by the end of the shoot, had regrets and doubts, hence the wanted to see some images before Newman left the country. I am a pack rat of old magazines and have far to many too search for this, but I do remember that Newman was uneasy at the end and was very much looking forward to returning home.

neil poulsen

4-Nov-2009, 13:09

Both videos were informative. As to lighting, it sounds like Newman's principle light was the available light that was supplemented with hot lights where needed. So, 1 or 2 second exposures at f11 or f16.

Although informative, the second video drove me crazy. The editing really sliced and diced the video. I think a lot of neat stuff was left out.

Thanks for the info.