Arnold T. Rosenberg, Food Photographer

Arnold T. Rosenberg, who had an extensive career as a food photographer, with work in magazines and newspapers such as Gourmet, Food and Wine, Martha Stewart Living, as well as with columns in The New York Times and cookbooks by Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey, died at Southampton Hospital on March 21 at the age of 85. According to Rochelle Rosenberg, his wife of 57 years, he died peacefully after a long period of deteriorating health following a stroke. The couple were full-time residents of Inkberry Street in East Hampton for the past 15 years.

Mr. Rosenberg was an identical twin, born in Philadelphia on Nov. 29, 1931. He graduated from Penn State University and in the late 1950s moved to New York City, where he landed a job as an assistant for the fashion and portrait photographer Irving Penn. While working in Mr. Penn’s studio, Mr. Rosenberg became friends of notable figures in the arts, including the architect Marcel Breuer, the painter Marcel Duchamp, and the Manhattan graphic designer Milton Glaser.

Launching his own photography career, Mr. Rosenberg soon found fame with a photograph taken in 1958 of Marcel Duchamp playing chess, shot through a glass tabletop. Today, the photograph is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

In 1961, Mr. Rosenberg opened a photography studio in Manhattan and began working on commercial shoots for advertising agencies. He was credited with having a knack for making food look appetizing, which was thought to be difficult. In 1969, Mr. Rosenberg and his wife purchased property on Georgica Pond and built a house designed by Marcel Breuer and his partner, Herbert Beckhard. Mr. Rosenberg owned over a dozen vintage Jaguars, some dating to the 1930s and some of which he restored himself. A garage was built for them next to his house.

In 1979, he was among the first American artists invited to visit the People’s Republic of China, and was asked by the director of Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philippe de Montebello, to photograph a Ming Dynasty-style scholar’s garden. The photographs were used by the Met to construct an exact replica called Astor Court, which is part of its permanent collection.

Mr. Rosenberg is survived by his wife. His twin brother, Allen Rosenberg, who died in 2013, had been a champion rower and part of the team that won a gold medal at the 1955 Pan American Games. He had developed a technique known as the “Rosenberg style,” still used by rowing crews around the world.

 A service was held on Sunday at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in East Hampton.