Pablo Picasso, Cannes, France, 1956 in Cannes, France Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

By the end of his career, Arnold Newman had developed a reputation for his "environmental portraiture" — a signature way of capturing artists and intellectuals in the spaces where they worked.

Newman would have been the first to admit he didn't invent the style. And he would have shirked any sort of label, too. But still, his archive is practically unrivaled as a who's-who of midcentury culture.

Shortly after Newman's death in 2006, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas acquired his archive. The curators there have whittled it down to about 200 images for a newly mounted exhibition, Arnold Newman: Master Class, and a corresponding book, Arnold Newman at Work.

American painter Edward Hopper in Truro, Mass., with his wife, Jo, in the background, 1960 Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

American photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, New York City, 1977 Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

Newman called himself a "saver" — perhaps a euphemism for "pack rat." He kept his notes, which he wrote meticulously, as well as his sketches, which he made exactingly. And although he published several photography books over the course of his life, what's interesting about this one is the emphasis on that ephemera — which illuminates both his methodology and his personality.

Sculptor Alexander Calder in his studio, 1957 Image: Arnold Newman/Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center

Artist Pablo Picasso, Cannes, France, 1956 Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

Writer Ayn Rand, New York City, 1964 Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

American newscaster Edward R. Murrow at CBS Studios, New York City, 1951 Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

Attorney Thurgood Marshall in Harlem, 1960 — before he was nominated to be a Supreme Court justice Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

Arnold Newman poses President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House in 1963. Image: Yoichi Okamoto/Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center

A tear sheet from Holiday magazine shows bistro owner Marius Guilhot and fishmonger Henri Castaing, 1961. Newman's sketch to the right maps out the table setting. Image: Arnold Newman/Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center

These "environmental portraits" are just a fraction of Newman's oeuvre, which included assignments for magazines like Life and other commercial clients. It's also interesting to note how, by no fault of his, portraits of women and people of color are remarkably few.

Roy Lichtenstein, American pop artist, South Hampton, N.Y., 1976 Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

Painter Piet Mondrian, New York, 1942 Image: Arnold Newman/Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center

In one portrait of Edward Hopper, the painter's wife, Jo, does make an appearance — completely dwarfed in the background. Sometimes the absence of a thing can be the most intriguing.

Alfried Krupp, industrialist, Essen, Germany, 1963 Image: Arnold Newman/Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center

Architect I.M. Pei, New York City, 1967 Image: Arnold Newman/Getty Images

Artist Ed Ruscha in his studio, Los Angeles, 1985 Image: Arnold Newman/Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center

Surrealist Salvador Dali’, New York, 1951 Image: Arnold Newman/Courtesy of Harry Ransom Center

What's also missing is the artist's signature. Salvador Dali and Eugene O'Neill got bylines and recognition — but for a photographer, the only signature is style. Fortunately for Newman, he had plenty of that.

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