William Safire Meets Marvin Newman

      I first met Marvin Newman a half-century ago at the formation of a group of ambitious 20-somethings that called itself “the Wednesday Ten.” The idea was to break out of our career boundries to get to know professionals in otherfields; in that way a doctor, a banker, a lawyer, a scientist, a restauranteur, an adman, a politician, an executive, a priest, a psychologist, a designer, and a writer could meet monthly to argue with and help each other. In that exercise in pioneer networking, Marvin was our photojournalist.

Although more modest than most of us, he was soon a leader in that field. Action color photography was gaining momentum, and he became a star in the medium because he showed how a still photo need not “freeze” action but could give the impression of fluid movement. Life, Look and Smithsonian were his frequent outlets, and Sports Illustrated later billed one of his historic shots as “our famous of the century” (not the swimsuit issue). It was his perfectly composed 1957 photo of the Texas Christian University locker room during the Cotton Bow). His color photo of the San Gennaro parade in New York from on high was a stunner, and another picture taken from a great height - looking down at the geometric pattern of trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange - gave an original dimension to the teeming action.

What those of us looked on upward mobility did not immediately realize in our friend’s commercial success was his growing reputation in the cultural world as photo-artist. His eye for human facial expression - in delight, or twisted in the agony of athletic triumph - as well as his nose for newsworthy architectural abstraction, had been recognized early by Edward Steichen. that legendary photographer, as curator, featured Marvin’s work in a survey of young talent and potential genius at the Museum of Modern Art. Over the years, his striking images - now considered part of “the Newman oeuvre” - became part of MoMA’s permanent collection, as well as that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Eastman House museum in Rochester, and the International Center of Photography in New York. Today, when the octogenarian successes of the Wednesday Ten gather every few months, we turn for cultural and artistic enrichment to the recognized artist in our midst.

(Excerpted from a 2009 New York Times article by William Safire)