Portrait photography isn’t necessarily the place where we learn about how to dress, but it can be the place where we get inspired by style. One of the best portrait photographers of the 20th century was Arnold Newman — a man who got his start in the field during The Great Depression. At the time, he had to drop out of university — where he was studying painting and drawing — to take a job making passport photos. Not terribly creative work, but it did set him on a path to become one of the most influential photographers of our time.
Newman specialized in what’s known as environmental portraiture, which is where a photographer places the subject in a carefully controlled setting to capture the essence of the individual’s life and work. A playwright might be placed on a theater stage, a musician amongst his instruments, and a politician in front of his or her representative building. “I didn’t just want to make a photograph with some things in the background,” Newman once told American Photo in an interview. “The surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. Just to simply do a portrait of a famous person doesn’t mean a thing.”
Newman’s subjects weren’t always well-dressed — because they weren’t in real life — but they were always stylish. Part of that is obviously to the credit of Newman, who was a fantastic photographer, and part of that is due to his editing. Newman produced something around 14,000 photos in his lifetime, with only a fraction of those ever released. Minor details, such as the subtle angle of how the subject tilted his head, or where he placed his arm, could completely change the feeling of an image. This famous portrait of Ivor Stravinsky, for example, was selected out of many simply because Stravinsky’s head is completely perpendicular to his piano. You can see what a difference such a small detail makes.
These subjects were also stylish because of who they were. Clothes are unique in that they represent our identities — either who we are or who we wish to be. Newman’s photography takes this one step further by representing people through their environment. In this way, style is more than just about clothes; it’s about the a person’s life, interests, and work. This gives us a much fuller image of style than what’s typically represented through fashion photography.
