INDECENT EXPOSURE

HELMUT NEWTON, one of the towering figures in the world of photography, is the subject of a newly released Taschen art book, which has been published to coincide with a large-scale restrospective exhibit at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin. BRUCE SCOTT takes a look back at the man whose unforgettable images continue to exert a lasting influence on fashion and art

- BRUCE SCOTT

In the world of fashion photography, Helmut Newton is an iconic figure. Alongside legends such as Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential and most imitated photographers of the 20th century. He is perhaps best known for his work with Vogue magazine – spanning the French, German, American, Italian, and Russian editions of the publication – although his full oeuvre also encompasses portrait, glamour, and art photography. Infamous for his controversial, provocative, and often racy subject matter, his “voyeuristic” images playfully reference film noir, expressionist cinema, surrealism, and even a little S&M.

He was born Helmut Neustädter, the son of Jewish parents, in Berlin on October 31, 1920. To commemorate the centenary of his birth, the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin had planned a grand retrospective of his life and work to be unveiled in 2020, but unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic scuttled those anniversary plans. However, the exhibition, simply entitled ‘Helmut Newton. Legacy’, did finally open to the public late last year – fittingly on October 31 – and is scheduled to run until May 22, 2022.