The unforgettable photographs of Helmut Newton, timeless and at the same time provocative, build a rich and ever-relevant artistic legacy. This book presents a compact portfolio of his work, complemented by an enlightening introduction and a detailed biographical timeline.
The images, always ambiguous, by Newton seduce with subtle allusions and refined associations, capable of captivating the viewer and, at the same time, challenging them. In this overall view, his unique gaze is perceived in the complex nuances that run through his work, especially in the genres of fashion and portraiture.
The book shows Newton’s evolution into a nonconformist, clever photographer with an ironic wink, a voyeur and satirist whose lens captured contradictory and decisive aspects of haute couture and high society in the last decades of the twentieth century. As a commissioned photographer, as a “Gun for Hire,” as he defined himself, he visually conveyed his personal perspectives and obsessions, such as the idea of a strong and self-assured woman. That figure became one of the central themes of his fashion images.
His settings, charged with eroticism, were often placed in the seductive atmosphere of opulent apartments or grand hotels, especially in Paris, Monte Carlo, and Los Angeles. From the mid-sixties, Newton made a name for himself in the world of fashion. His works were published in leading magazines, including Vogue Paris, Elle, Marie Claire, Nova, Queen, and the British Vogue. By the mid-seventies, his first books and exhibitions made him even better known. His images immortalized countless celebrities from the world of the beautiful and wealthy, such as Caroline of Monaco, Charlotte Rampling, Paloma Picasso, and Karl Lagerfeld.
