[.ca] Arnold Newman (ISBN 8790029712)

From Amazon.com:
There's a famous photograph of Picasso in his 70s that probably would make you think "genius" and "visionary" even if you had no idea he was a great artist. One hand pushes up against his forehead, carving a few extra wrinkles and hooding one eye; the other eye stares out with implacable intensity. This is the work of Arnold Newman, one of the great contemporary American portrait photographers, whose images--frequently made on assignment in Europe--appeared in Harper's Bazaar, Fortune, Life, Look, and other major magazines. Trained as a painter, he believes (as he writes in a short, passionate essay prefacing his selection of 60 years of his work) that "we do not take pictures with our cameras, but with our hearts and minds." He has always been fascinated by the kind of people--scientists, musicians, actors, politicians, writers, and artists--with whom he could have "long conversations until late at night." Arnold Newman, probably the most extensive of the many samplings of the photographer's work, amply displays his vaunted skill at portraying mostly well-known sitters in their native habitats, whether these happen to be lonely-looking palaces (Haile Selassie, Generalissimo Franco), book-lined offices (Golda Meier, Stephen Jay Gould), a shabby road veiled in darkness (Shelagh Delaney), a bed (Woody Allen, scribbling on a legal pad), or mysterious precincts that capture the willful individuality of artists and architects. With 240 black-and-white and color plates, this beautifully produced book (marred only by the awkward way the elegant black silhouette of a grand piano lid in the Igor Stravinsky portrait bleeds across two pages) accompanies an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (March 18-May 21, 2000). --Cathy Curtis

Chronique amazon.fr:
Après quelques images en extérieur, Arnold Newman s'est décidé très tôt pour le portrait d'artistes, d'intellectuels et d'hommes politiques, saisis en plans larges, au sein de compositions très élaborées, les unes en noir et blanc, les autres en couleur. Ses images sont devenues des classiques du portrait photographique. Le style de Newman accorde une place essentielle à l'environnement de son modèle. Le sujet est toujours décalé, repoussé sur les bords de l'image, donnant une perception de la personnalité dans son univers. Igor Stravinsky, le bras appuyé sur un piano à queue ouvert occupant tout l'espace par ses formes géométriques, Mondrian derrière son chevalet, Eugene O'Neill, à l'entrée des coulisses d'un théâtre ou encore Picasso dans son atelier sont autant d'images connues, reconnues. Ici sont rassemblés l'essentiel des clichés de Newman depuis les portraits de Chagall, Giacometti, Cartier-Bresson à ceux de Rabin, Arafat, Clinton et Woody Allen. Des personnages uniques saisis dans un style très personnel. Un album rien moins que remarquable sur un maître qui a donné naissance au "portrait environnemental". --Céline Darner

Simply AMAZING photographs:
I'm an amateur photographer, so when I heard an interview with Arnold Newman on NPR's Morning Edition, I knew I had to get this book. Newman is considered the inventor of "environmental portraits," in which the photographer uses surroundings to capture essential elements of his or her subject. The photos collected in this volume span Newman's entire career and range from Senator John F. Kennedy to President Bill Clinton. The collection is mostly black-and-white. Leafing through the book, I've gotten many ideas for my own photography, but I've also gained a new appreciation for many of the historical figures Newman captured in his work. The book is large and heavy, very satisfying to hold and look through, and will make an excellent coffee table book. Whether you're into history or photography, you'll really enjoy this book.

Almost as good as being there:
I just got back from the Newman exhibit at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. and although I thought I had seen most of his work, I was stunned by the boldness of some of the photo collage work and color work which I had previously only seen in B & W. The book has all of the show and many more. It was $40 there and they were selling like hotcakes. The book is beautiful and has $1 million worth of images in it. Hard to pick a favorite. Certainly Picasso and maybe Isaac Asimov too.