Born in England, Newell began photographing in his teens with a totally manual 35mm Ilford Advocate camera. He exclusively made colour slides (transparencies). After university he worked in market research in London, then went off to start a research company in Asia. Newell was based in Malaysia for 14 years, 1964-77, before moving to New Zealand, where he joined the Christchurch Photographic Society, upgraded his gear and began photographing seriously. He earned a Fellowship of The Photographic Society of New Zealand (FPSNZ) with a documentary-style portfolio of children in Asia. He subsequently earned a Fellowship of the Nature Photography Society of NZ (FNPSNZ) with a landscape portfolio. Newell sat on the PSNZ Honours Board for 12 years and was founding editor of the 'New Zealand Camera' book. He is an honorary life member of both the Christchurch Photographic Society and PSNZ.