Helmut Newton, Matthias Harder, Philippe GarnerHelmut Newton : Legacy

“Spanning more than half a century, the visionary Helmut Newton’s unparalleled photography has touched the public by the millions through the pages of major magazines like Vogue and Elle. Fashion, portraiture or glamour: his work transcends genres and is distinguished by its elegance and style. A certain voyeurism, too. His signature style remains inimitable. Having mastered fashion photography at an early age, Helmut Newton quickly freed himself from standard practices, skilfully playing with the blur between illusion and reality.

All aspects of his work – fashion, portraiture and nudes in particular – display the same clear aesthetic, in which women take centre stage, like Catherine Deneuve, Liz Taylor or Charlotte Rampling. Going beyond traditional narrative approaches, Newton’s fashion photography exudes a luxurious elegance and subtle seduction, but is also rich in cultural references and a sense of humour that can be surprising.
In the 1990s, Newton worked for the German, American, Italian, French and Russian editions of Vogue, mainly from Monaco, where he lived from 1981. Newton transformed trivial places such as his own garage into radically contrasting or minimalist theatrical scenes; he also immortalised with obvious taste the eccentric lives of the beautiful and wealthy in compositions where eroticism and class are combined in non-conformist scenarios.
He exploited visual clichés while questioning them, sometimes tinged with irony, mockery or self-criticism, but always with great empathy. Helmut Newton. Legacy, which accompanies the international touring exhibition devoted to Newton’s work, presents nuggets from one of the most published bodies of photographic work in history, including many recently rediscovered images.
These pages celebrate Helmut Newton as a prolific image-maker and true visionary, and his continuing influence on visual art and modern photography.”