Arnold Newman was born March 3, 1918 in New York City. He was raised and attended schools in Atlantic City, N.J. and Miami Beach, Florida. He studied art through a scholarship at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL from 1936 to 1938. Newman began his career in photography in 1938 working at chain portrait studios in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and West Palm Beach, and immediately began working in abstract and documentary photography on his own. In June of 1941, Beaumont Newhall of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Alfred Stieglitz “discovered” him, and he was given an exhibit with Ben Rose at the A.D. Gallery in September. There he began working on experimental portraiture, developing an approach that is widely influential in portrait photography today.
One of the twentieth century's most renowned portrait photographers, Newman pioneered a style which places the subject in a carefully composed setting, capturing the essence of their work and personality: a style which became known as "environmental portraiture."
Since the late 1930s, Newman has photographed many of the most outstanding personalities of the twentieth century, from Pablo Picasso, Alfred Stieglitz, Igor Stravinski, to John F. Kennedy. He has portrayed artists, writers, actors, composers, politicians and others from around the world in his unique style. In many ways Newman has captured the soul of twentieth century culture. In the decades since the late 1930s, Newman has worked for leading publications that include LIFE, Look, Fortune, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. He died in New York City on June 6, 2006.
(via arnoldnewman.com)