Marvin E. Newman. Art Edition No. 76-150 ‘Broadway, Believe It, 1958’ | TASCHEN

In 1952, after studying photography at Chicago’s Institute of Design, native New Yorker Marvin E. Newman returned to his hometown. Like many artists before, he set about chronicling the city. Unlike his predecessors, Newman chose color photography as the preeminent medium for capturing the people, landmarks, chaos, and energy of the self-proclaimed Greatest City in the World, commenting, “We see in color, so black and white is technically a handicap for representing the world.” Today, Newman’s vivid images are lauded by the likes of Eastman House, MoMA, and the International Center of Photography, but remain largely undiscovered beyond a prestigious collector and gallery circle. In this stately Art Edition, TASCHEN presents the photographer’s first ever career monograph, featuring some 170 pictures from the late 1940s through to the early 1980s, and accompanied by the signed photographic print Broadway, Believe It, 1958. As the unofficial headquarters of postwar New York, Times Square and 42nd Street were a perfect location for Newman’s highly graphic and unique cityscapes. This image is part of a seminal color series on Times Square that will resonate with all lovers of street photography. Newman has used everything at his disposal: color film, tungsten lighting, the movie theaters, the marquees, the dazzling brightness, the driving rain, and the juxtaposition of light and shadows which turns Times Square into the ultimate theatrical production. The result is a glorious show where reality and fantasy blur to create a compulsive viewing experience and where the only option is to “Believe It.” The signed Art Edition volume includes other vivid tableaux across New York, as well as top shots from Newman’s sports photography portfolio for the likes of Life, Look, and Sports Illustrated, and images from the Midwest; Chicago; a vintage 1950s circus; a legalized brothel in Reno, Nevada; Las Vegas; Alaska; and the West Coast. With a new essay by critic and scholar Lyle Rexer, this first chronological retrospective offers due recognition to an outstanding talent and a tribute to New York in all its thrilling, chaotic, and stately glory. Art Edition (76-150), with the print Broadway, Believe It (1958), each numbered and signed by Marvin E. Newman. Also available as three additional Art Editions of 75 copies each, with alternative signed prints, and as a signed Collector’s Edition (No. 301-1,000).