HELMUT NEWTON KATE WALKER
Fashion photography is a relatively new art. It all started with Julia Margaret Cameron with her fashionable portraits, which were heavily influenced by the Romantics of that era like the writings of Lord Alfred Tennyson. Cameron was quoted saying, “my aspirations are to ennoble Photography and to secure for it the character and uses of High Art by combining the real and Ideal and sacrificing nothing of the Truth by all possible devotion to Poetry and beauty,�
(Cameron). Her goal to create a kind of art from her photography was very important for future photographers and especially those who captured fashion through the lens. Another start of fashion photography can be traced all of the way back to 1856 which a photo book created for a noble woman of the court of Napoleon III, Virginia Oldoini by Adolphe Braun where she was depicted wearing official court dress of the time. Countess Virginia Oldoini was considered
The Parting of Lancelot and Guinevere, 1874. Julia Margaret Cameron.
Contessa di constiglione, 1861. Pierre-Louis Pierson
to be a glamorous woman who was very popular and was admired for her impeccable style. Despite the growing popularity of photography, magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar continued to use illustrations from famous illustrators like Christian Bérard and Georges Lepape. Couturiers of that time didn’t want to use photographers to capture their designs because they feared that the exclusivity would be lost from their creations. However, Conde Nast did
eventually hire an inhouse photographer Baron Adolphe de Meyer who started experimenting by photographing portraits of aristocrats, actresses, and models wearing their own clothing for Vogue magazine (Fior). Eventually, fashion photography had evolved into a legitimate art form itself, which brings us upon our subject, the man himself, The King of Kink, Herr Helmut Newton. Helmut Newton is a fashion photographer who was born Helmut Neustädter in Berlin, Germany on October
31, 1920 to an affluent German bourgeois, button-making family. He attended school in Berlin at the American School and eventually failed out of school purposefully due to his new interest in photography with his newly purchased Kodak Brownie camera in 1932. After his expulsion, his mother got him an apprenticeship with a society photographer, Madame Yva where he learned how to properly use a camera. It was at this time during his apprenticeship that he witnessed his first
lingerie shoot and would be an influence for him throughout his entire career. With the changing political climate in 1933 Germany with the rise of Hitler to power, anti-Semitism ran rampant throughout the country and was felt by Newton’s family because they were Jewish. This became increasingly hard for Newton’s family to continue running the button factory due to the Nuremberg Laws and the company was eventually taken away from the family and Newton’s father had
Helmut newton
been briefly interned in a concentration camp on Kristalnacht. This event had prompted Newton’s family to leave Germany for South America but Newton had gone to Australia via Singapore instead because of the increasing threat of Nazis. While he was in Singapore, he became the most fervent paramour of a very wealthy and sexually charged Josette Fabien. Fabien and Newton had an intense sexual chemistry and trysts to inspire a career of sexual eroticism and carnal magnetism.
Helmut Newton arrived in Australia after being detained by the British Authorities in Singapore because of his German citizenship to be placed in a camp and was released in 1942. After his internment he had enlisted in the Australian Army and was granted British citizenship, which was when he changed his name from Neustädter to Newton in 1945 when World War II ended. Continuing his amorous love affair with photography, Helmut Newton picked up his passion right where
he left off and found himself opening an art gallery in Melbourne in the fashionable textile district on Flanders Lane. There he shot fashion and theater and had his first exhibition with a fellow solider, Wolfgang Sievers and had become a Vogue Paris contributer. Some time later in 1953, another fashion photographer, Henry Talbot had heard of Newton’s reputation and forged a partnership. Three years later, Newton was hired to do a commission for Vogue which then intern led to a contract with British
Vogue. This contract meant he had to leave his studio in Melbourne to go to Europe and move permanently to London. He never finished his commission with British Vogue but instead moved to Paris to work for French and German magazines. During his time in Paris, he not only found his signature stylized eroticism, which he calls his, “rather nasty Berlin sense of humor,” (Faded & Blurred) but also met his future wife, Australian actress, June Browne. During the 60’s, Helmut
Newton worked mainly with Vogue Paris and Harper’s Bazaar in Paris. He further explored the themes of sado-masochism and fetishism. When asked about his themes, Newton said, “I was very interested in sadomasochism. It’s perfectly legitimate... Well, I’ve always considered Hermes to be the world’s greatest sex shop-with its whips, saddles, spurs. We spent an afternoon there, selecting all kinds of things from the cases, went back to the hotel room, and I
had one girl ride the other. In a particular photo one girl has a whip clenched between her teeth. She looked great. But I think Mr. Hermes had a fit when he saw the photos. Actually a lot of advertisers have fits when they see what I do with their products. A favorite shot of mine is one of a woman wearing Bulgari jewels and stuffing a chicken. Needless to say, Bulgari thought it was a terrible thing for me to do with their jewels” (American Suburb X, 2010). Newton loved to explore
Hermes saddle
cindy crawford
the world and had no interested in following the rules. He had followed enough of the rules in Nazi Germany and was pushing boundaries throughout the rest of his life and career. It wasn’t until the 80’s though was when Newton published “Big Nudes” to huge acclaim and cemented his success. This series was inspired by photos of the Bader Meinhoff Gang in Germany. “The police had lifesize photos of the gang members-dressed, of course. I saw those in the newspaper and cut the pictures out
and got the idea to do the series.” (American Suburb X, 2010). Newton said, “… the big Swedish, German, and American girls came on the scene in the ‘80s. They were built like truck drivers, which is a look that I like. It was the heyday of the super models like Cindy Crawford — Cindy had a great quality,” (Faded & Blurred). Anthony Lane of The New Yorker writes, “That is why people complain about Newton: not because he strips women and poses them as sternly available but
because, at the same time, he has the gall to make them untouchable. One thing alone will break the lock: whatever the Beatles may have promised, money can buy you love. Now, that is shocking.” While on the other end of the spectrum it may be argued that “he considers himself a lover of strong women and wants to represent women as such in his pictures. What brings contradiction and provocation though, is the use of sexual themes. Putting these strong women in vulnerable “outfits” defies political
correctness and thus, brought him haste from feminists. To show women, adopting a strong and straight attitude in all their nakedness, tends to desexualize the subjects and succeeds in demonstrating the strength and the boldness of women “ (Jovmir). Robert Sobieszek. chief at the L.A. County Museum of Art noted, “His work was never dirty ... but he stretched the boundaries of what a fashion magazine looked like” (Lenin Imports). There is no argument that women, luxury, sexuality,
power, and the tendency to push boundaries are what make these Helmut Newton’s work influential and haunting. Later on in life, Newton and Browne split their time between Monte Carlo and Los Angeles. Newton kept working on publications such as American Vogue, Vogue Paris, Harper’s Bazaar
and Playboy. He was killed on January 23, 2004 because he lost control of his car while leaving Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles and the world lost one of the most truly artistically brilliant minds but his influence continues to live on.