Helmut Newton was born in Berlin in 1920. At the age of 12 he purchased his first camera and started to work for a German photographer as he was 16. His family was Jewish and left Germany in 1938. His parents went to Argentina and he made his way through Italy and China to Singapore, where he started working for a local newsmagazine. From Singapore he made it 1940 to Australia where he worked as a truck driver before he opened a studio in fashionable in 1946.
In 1957 he left Australia to move to London as he had already gained a reputation as a fashion photographer and has been published for the Vogue magazine – more than once. Two years later he went back to Australia to stay there for two more years, left again, and finally settled down – with his wife – in Paris after, at the age of 41.
In his later years, Helmut Newton lived in both Los Angeles, California and Monte Carlo.
Newton works are often, (always!), amazingly beautiful, interestingly sexual, mysterious, and may be dramatic as well .. And always – time by time – there occur voices that his photographs are cruel and pornographic, too, or only have to be seen in this way.
I don’t know, but – why not – love to dive and dig deep and relishing in his world of erotic inspired aestheticism, and believe his words, that he considered himself as a feminist who admired and adored strong, triumphant women.
My Job as Photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain.
Helmut Newton
Photos taken @ Helmut Newton Foundation Berlin