Arnold Krupp

Arnold Newman

1963

Photograph of man wearing a suit seated in warehouse facing camera with chin resting on folded hands, framed by two concrete pillars. — When Arnold Newman was asked by Newsweek magazine to photograph industrialist Alfred Krupp, he initially refused. He was repelled by the idea of photographing a man who had been prosecuted as a war criminal for using slave laborers in his factories during World War II and working tens of thousands of them to death. Eventually, Newman decided to take Krupp’s picture, but purposely staged the angle, lighting, and background of the photograph in such a way as to portray Krupp as malevolent. He considered this portrait of evil one of the most important photographs he ever took.

When Arnold Newman was asked by Newsweek magazine to photograph industrialist Alfred Krupp, he initially refused. He was repelled by the idea of photographing a man who had been prosecuted as a war criminal for using slave laborers in his factories during World War II and working tens of thousands of them to death. Eventually, Newman decided to take Krupp’s picture, but purposely staged the angle, lighting, and background of the photograph in such a way as to portray Krupp as malevolent. He considered this portrait of evil one of the most important photographs he ever took.