Head over Heels: Joanne and Paul Newman: A Love Affair in Words and Pictures

Newman’s mesmerizing debut gathers together photographs of the “achingly beautiful movie stars who happen[ed] to be my parents.” After Joanne Woodward met Paul Newman on the set of the 1953 Broadway play Picnic (she thought he was “grossly untalented” at the time), they began a dynamic moviemaking partnership and storied relationship that lasted until Paul’s death in 2008. In black-and-white photographs mostly from the 1950s and ’60s, a playful, electric bond emerges that often jumps off the page, as in shots of Paul reclining on Joanne on a couch as both amusedly look at something out of frame; Joanne dancing in front of an enraptured Paul; and multiple photos of the pair by the family tree house, “a favorite trysting spot” and “a reminder that escape is always possible, and one doesn’t have to go very far.” In moments as mundane as sharing a cigarette or as glitzy as posing at a star-studded awards show, the couple appears continuously alight in their youth and beauty. Most affecting is the evident connection between the two, captured in their recurring looks of love, lust, and devotion. Throughout, Melissa Newman’s spare, nostalgic commentary enriches the proceedings. It’s an enchanting tribute to one of Hollywood’s most mythologized couples. (Oct.)