First Image: Thierry Mugler, 1988, Helmut Newton, Monaco. Serious silhouette from Thierry Mugler, works so well in Helmut Newtons work, i think similar ideas about female form.
Second image: Helmut Newton, 1978, Miami, love his work in colour with the high contrast, Miami American movie styles, bright pop colour and amazonian brown bodies everywhere. Just reminds me some trashy pop culture..which is trashy but still bright and fun.
Third Image: Le Smoking jacket, 1975, Helmut Newton, Paris. One of my favourite collection of images he has done just because of the female attitude in it.
Recently got into Helmut Newton and his photographs, just became really interested in the ideas behind his shots. I watched a documentary about him called “Helmut Newton: frames from the edge” (nice title :) 1988, Adrian Moben),
was interesting to hear his attitude to his work- e.g in a press conference, a woman asked him whether his work is like fashion photography, or true art, or in between and he replied - ‘Listen lady, here is how i see it-The two most dirty words in photography are “art” and “good taste”’
Little facts about him -born in Berlin,son to a business man, german-jew so had to flee the city in the 30s, never saw his family again, married June, his wife he met in AUS, travelled between monaco, france, new york/LA ever and Berlin ever since.
- loves LA because there is no sense of bourgeoisie culture there, fascinated by swimming pools since he was a child, and hotel rooms because of their erotic mystery, and he hated doing the fashion work sometimes as he wasnt allowed to make it comic, satirical when documenting the fashion, it was too constricting.
When watching him work in this documentary, you really get the sense of he knows exactly what he wants. There are interviews with many people he has shot like Sigourney Weaver (who looks incredible in her shots), shot loads with Charlotte Rampling, and loads of famous faces, including Margaret Thatcher (clothed of course ha). The way they describe it is that he searches for the form in the photo, down to the very way the model bends her finger, and instead of it being about where the camera was placed, it was completely about the total scene in the picture, how the body, form, the viewpoint was pitch perfect to his vision for every shot. His personality is always in the frame, when you are being shot, you become a “Helmut”.
