Artist: Helmut Newton (1920-2004)

Big nude, Paris, 1982.

Gelatin silverprint size 28,5x20cm, paper size 24x30cm, nagetive 3988/5, printed 1993 by studio of Newton (not signed, nor stamped).

Provenance: privat collection Anne Lugthart.

Helmut Newton (1920-2004) is known for his eyebrow-raising images and voyeuristic worldview, which changed the fashion landscape forever. The Jewish Helmut Newton was born as Helmut Neustädter in Berlin.

At the age of twelve, the young man took up photography; he did not complete high school. He took lessons from the also Jewish photographer Elsie Neuländer Simon, who would not survive the concentration camps. When his parents fled to South America after Kristallnacht in 1938, he himself fled to Singapore. There he worked, among other things, as a press photographer for the English-language newspaper The Straits Times. In 1940 he moved to Australia, served for five years in the Australian army and acquired Australian nationality in 1946. There he met the actress June Brunell (stage name of June Browne), who posed as a model for him and became his wife in 1948.

After many trips to Europe and jobs for British and Australian Vogue, he moved to Paris in the early 1960s. There he would work as a fashion photographer for the French edition of Vogue for the next decades. In 1971 a heart attack almost killed him. From that moment on, his work would become more personal. Helmut and June moved to Monaco in 1981 and from then on spent the winters in Los Angeles.

In 2004, Helmut Newton died in a single-vehicle traffic accident, possibly as a result of a heart attack.

His photography

Helmut Newton was a source of inspiration for those who are involved in fashion and glamour photography. Newton played with the idea that “fashion is clothing and clothing covers nudity”. He played with the boundaries between fashion photography and eroticism like no other. Recurring themes in his work are ‘the night’, ‘Nazism’ and ‘the big woman’. The high heel is therefore his trademark. His photos are “erotically tinted”, “shocking”, “stimulating and provocative”. Opponents accused him of voyeurism and pornography. In any case, Newton provided a new starting point in fashion photography and was the great example for many. The Museum für Fotografie in Berlin is largely dedicated to Newton’s work. This museum houses the photo collection of the Helmut Newton Stiftung. Objects from the photographer’s private collection can also be viewed there.