Arnold Newman’s Magazine World: Building Icons

A richly illustrated presentation of the creative career of the acclaimed portraitist, documentarian and experimentalist frequently found in the pages of Life, Look and Harper's Bazaar

Published with Art Gallery of Ontario and Museum Hanmi.

American photographer Arnold Newman (1918–2006) is best known for his compelling portraits of artists, composers, actors and political figures of the postwar era. Newman's deliberately constructed compositions express biography, creative vision and professional expertise. By building each image and methodically planning his photoshoots, he developed a graphic visual style that was well suited to popular magazines, such as Life, Look, Fortune, Holiday and Harper's Bazaar.
This book considers the full breadth of Newman's photographic practice, including his magazine commissions and advertisements, and highlights the crucial role magazines played in shaping his career. In three major illustrated sections, the authors explore the ways that Newman learned through magazines; how his career was propelled by magazine commissions during the 1950s and 1960s; and how mass media publications circulated his work and cemented his reputation. The photographs reveal Newman's many influences and chart his considerable impact on American visual culture. Tracing Arnold Newman's relationship with and within the popular press expands our understanding of his work, reveals the inventiveness of his craft and underscores his undeniable impact on American visual culture in the postwar period.