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Arnold
Newman
The
Medal of Honor for Excellence in Photography
presented to Arnold Newman
May 18, 2006
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"Robert
Moses, New York", 1959. |
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Photography,
as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion
of reality with which we create our own private world.
—Arnold Newman
Arnold
Newman describes his private world as one born of instinct,
in which a lifetime of learning, knowledge, and intuition
are brought together harmoniously through a single moment
of inspiration. This instinct for visual expression
is a way of seeing life as an artful interlude between
waste and fulfillment, and a means of harnessing the
output of human emotions that drive interior engines
of poetry, song, and visual pleasure. Newman's own visual
instinct was honed and tempered by his friendships with
many of the world's leading artists, writers, poets,
politicians, and other personages of great accomplishment.
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From
the 1940s to the present he photographed leaders of
world culture and society in what has been called "environmental
portraiture"; his subjects are photographed in
the physical milieu of their particular profession or
personal creations. But it is Newman's selection and
imaginative portrayal of his subjects' environments
in conjunction with the subjects themselves that sets
his work at the pinnacle of the long tradition of portrait
photography. From the haunting portraits by Julia Margaret
Cameron in the 19th century to Newman's prolific achievement
today, the aesthetic aim of portraiture has been to
evoke a sense of the inner being of individuals.
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Portrait
of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky October 1, 1966
in Princeton, New Jersey. Stravinsky is widely considered
one of the greatest and most versatile composers of
the 20th century. One of his most famous compositions,
"The Rite of Spring," was written for ballet.
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Portrait
of American author Truman Capote June 28, 1977 in New
York City. Capote is best known for such novels as "In
Cold Blood" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
Alfred
Stieglitz, NYC, 1944 © Arnold Newman
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Arnold Newman has lived and worked in New York City
for most of his career as a freelance photographer for
magazines like Fortune, Life, Newsweek, and Esquire,
among others. His professional work began, however,
in Miami and West Palm Beach in 1938, where he also
developed a mature vision for making socially conscious
photographs of urban poor. By the mid-1940s, after a
short tenure in Philadelphia, he had found his own vision
in the strong empathy he had for artists and their world.
Both Alfred Stieglitz and Beaumont Newhall encouraged
and supported his work in this direction, and by 1945
Newman moved to New York to stay.
Today
Newman continues to photograph leading international
figures for the publishing world and for himself. The
distinction between works commissioned and self-generated
by Newman has little meaning. His professional work
and his aesthetic ideas spring from the same well and
remain irrevocably driven by a desire to release symbolic
visions of the human spirit.
Text
from the International
Center for Photography website
Visit the
PDN Legends Gallery to learn more about Arnold Newman's
influences, watch video clips, read interviews, etc.
See
an extensive online gallery of Mr. Newman work at Digital
Journalist. orgs
Read
a fascinating interview, "Dinner
with Arnold," in Madrid by Ysabel de la Rosa.
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