June 8, 2006

Arnold Newman dies in New York at 88


Photographer famed for his revealing ‘environmental portraits’


NEW YORK - Photographer Arnold Newman, whose “environmental portraits” of artists and politicians revealed their souls through evocative settings and lighting, died Tuesday. He was 88.

Newman, who was in rehabilitation from a recent stroke, died of a heart attack at Mount Sinai Medical Center, according to associates at a gallery that represented him.

“Arnold had an ability to see things that transcended what everybody else looked at,” said Ron Kurtz, owner of Commerce Graphics, a New York gallery that deals in his fine art prints.

Based mostly in New York, Newman traveled the world to photograph artists, scientists, fellow photographers and politicians. Working as a freelancer for Life and other magazines, he photographed Pablo Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Reagan and Mickey Mantle.

His portraits were posed to bring out what the subjects did, revealing them in their own environments. Among his best-known works were those of Igor Stravinsky at the piano and Nazi industrialist Alfred Krupp looking demonic in his factory.

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